Usually I perceive advertising as necessary evil on web sites, though ads in general can play a useful role in calling our attention to useful stuff, if in a mostly ugly and untargetted way.
Once in a while when flipping through a big ad-laden magazine like Wired I get absorbed in the meta-reading activity of looking at page after page of ads and wondering what they were thinking with each particular creative and marketing approach. Part of me is also just reading the ads in consumer mode like the advertisers want me to. I also think about how we watch TV shows about famous TV ads, make a big deal about the Super Bowl ads, and mimic ads (my relatively conservative father just sent me an email with the subject, “Whassup?”).
Recently I wondered, if these big, creative, attractive ads so captivate people that it’s conceivable to fill 20 consecutive pages with them, would people also want to experience them similarly on the web? The Onion I think comes closest to this with their long list of “sponsers”. But imagine taking the next step: a broadband site where you could navigate through the content but also step through a linear progression of big, beautiful advertisements. Would people want to do this? My gut says yes, some people would. And if that pays for great content then it’s worth pursuing.