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by EvanAnderson 42 days ago
Back in the late 90s I stood up a webserver in my office that returned fake banner ads for 404's. I used the in-house DNS server to vector "*.doubleclick.net" over to it.

We'd get amusing banner ads for things like cocaine-based nasal spray, renting pigs, and other vaguely off-color things in place of real ads. It was very, very amusing. I didn't tell anybody I was doing it and got some real laughs when people submitted helldesk tickets asking about the ads.

It got the axe when a technician printed some Mapquest directions that included off-color ads and left them laying around at a Customer site.

Aside: The fake ads came from a website called "Bannertown", (if memory serves). I believe it's long-since defunct. I'd love to find the ads today. They were very amusing.

2 comments

That's the ones! Great find. I remember "Bannertown" but "chickenhead.com" slipped my mind. As soon as I saw your URL it came flooding back. Thanks!
It was a huge nostalgia bomb for me too, nearly knocked me off my seat. Thanks for reminding me of it.