Collaboration Peter Hill and J.J. Voss (Photographer)
S U P E R F I C T I O N S
Banner Ads
Peter Hill once
(I think it was in the Doric Tavern in Edinburgh over a large rum
and coke) described advertising as the world's most ubiquitous
superfiction. Through the 20th century advertisements have fragmented
television dramas, they have splintered the radio waves and stared us down from billboards
during long drives in the country and short trips to the CBD. Now they have spread,
virus-like, on to the screens of our PCs. By December of 1996 you only had to think
of a search engine and you automatically made a mind picture of a banner ad: "The
Power Shot 600" from Canon; "Travel Information" from
American Express ; "Star Trek - First Contact" from Paramount;
"02" from Silicon Graphics; "Email with Pictures" from
Netscape Navigator; "Visual Basic 5.0" from Microsoft;
"Britannica Online" from the editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica -
and what would 1996 have been like without the wonderful Toyota Celica interrupting our surfing
every other click? Some find them as annoying as flies at a late summer barbecue. 'I've grown fond
of the critters over the past year,' Hill says,' and have decided to keep a few for future generations
who will probably be surprised how small and unobtrusive they were, back in the 1990s.' see
Search Engines
