In August 2002, VT launched an all-new java-based format. It was a rocky transition and a lot of people hated it and complained for months about various issues that bothered them. But out of the chaos of the re-launch came an odd little feature that caught people off guard.
They were "home-made" VT banner ads. Advertisements for VT located at the top of every page. The most controversial (i.e. funniest) of the ads was the "M.I.T. : Men In Thongs" ad. It featured two or three guys in thongs, with a little VT-related tagline below it. (I wish I still had the originals, but they were sadly lost. )
So just for fun, I created this very simple, un-funny mock-VT Banner Ad and posted it on my homepage:
It got a few laughs, but when I started thinking about it, I figured I could make many more. So the next one off the production line was this one. Considering I really didn't know daarth very well at the time, I had to email him to ask if he was offended by it. He wasn't, so it hit my homepage.
And then, the next day, this one was posted:
Well, it didn't take long for these to get mentioned on the Miscellaneous Forum, and then I was busy creating as many as I could for the handful of people I knew on VT. Here they are, in the order they were created:
