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"Brand recognition and effective marketing don't always show in unique clicks. Sales figures are the only way to tell if bigger ads work."

When I was much younger, my mom had a project. I couldn't have been more than a toddler, but I remember her project. I remember her sitting in front of the television with a big chart she had made. She watched for hours and would catalog some mysterious figures onto the chart. I was too young to know what she was doing, but I definitely remember that the TV stole my mommy.

Years later, I found out what she been doing with that bitch TV. She had been tracking the content, timing and volume levels of television ads. She was trying to determine if the local television affiliates were being true to FCC and National Network standards for commercial advertising.

She told me things that had never occurred to me about media advertising. For instance, one way advertisers used to lure people into watching commercials was by having the stations play spots at a higher volume level that the actual programs. This volume adjustment was against FCC rules.

I write about advertising standards today. I don't know if you are aware, but since February of this year, the rules on banner advertising have changed. Have you noticed when you go to your favorite non-adult sites, they have these big-ass ad banners? That's the change of which I write.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB: http://www.iab.net) call themselves: "The first global not for profit association devoted exclusively to maximizing the use and effectiveness of advertising on the Internet." Though the standards they set are voluntary, the majority of the Internet world listens to them and abides by their suggestions. They (in February) enacted seven new shape and size requirements for online ad banners.

The standards call for BIGGER ads. The graphic artists of the web will be happy. This gives them greater freedom to reach customers with easier to see images and text. The new large banners run up the sides of pages and cut right through their middles. This will be great for the companies that buy online advertising. They'll be able to make more of a visual impact on surfers. This will be great for websites because they can charge advertisers more for the bigger ads.

The question is, will cybersurfers click more or buy more because of bigger ads? Perhaps, perhaps not. Advertising is a mysterious art. An obnoxious little old lady with a whiny voice who drones on about toilet paper may irritate you. Yet millions of shoppers bought more of the toilet paper that old lady droned about than any other brand. Brand recognition and effective marketing don't always show in unique clicks. Sales figures are the only way to tell if bigger ads work.

Will bigger ads help the adult webmaster? The average gallery submitter will probably have a hard time incorporating larger ads on their pages. It's hard enough for them to fight the whims of the TGP directory's rules about sponsor/host ads on gallery pages. Even though some of the larger TGP and TOP LIST sites incorporate the larger ads on their personal sites, bigger ads on galleries will probably not fly. Those who run free, AVS or paysites will and have begun applying the newer-sized ads in their sites. The results are not in as to whether or not the new sizes sell memberships.

For those of you who want to play around with bigger ads, here are the new size standards laid out by the IAB:

NEW INTERACTIVE MARKETING UNITS

120 x 600

160 x 600

180 x 150

300 x 250

336 x 280

240 x 400

250 x 250

When my mom would get upset because a TV commercial was too loud, it didn't matter much to me. Now that I am in a media industry, I wish she were around so I could quiz her endlessly on standards. It bothers me that "some guys" tell the whole of the Internet industry to upsize ad space. We have bigger boxes filling up the space of a web page and everyone says it's okay.

Is it? My mom would know.