I saw a flash ad today (animated but for once, not annoying). It was an iTunes ad and featured people jumping around in silhouette. It had sound but only when the mouse was over it (how polite).
Anyway, the thing was the ad was drawing contents outside it’s frame!
It turns out this isn’t as tricky as it seems. Flash ads can be drawn at z index 0 and can have a transparent background. Clever positioning/flow control ensures the ad appears to be restricted to an “ad frame” when it actually has access to more of the page.
I’m not sure how useful this is in general but in this case it makes for a superb effect. The use of the “extra space” is sparing so instead of being annoying it’s almost possible to miss it. Then again it’s clearly meant to get your attention… it certainly got mine!
