[coldpie]

I have no idea why ad networks don't have two fields for advertisers: a plain PNG image and a URL to link to. I guess the answer is somehow "money," but I feel like client websites would have enough incentive to switch to the network that works this way to avoid this BS for their users.

[phamilton]

Most ads use multiple tracking pixels for various 3rd party analytics and measurement. Some of these analytics require runtime inspection of the page to confirm things like domain, viewability, height and width, page language,etc. So your average ad requires loading a dozen empty images ("pixels") and running a bit of JavaScript.

[coldpie]

And people are baffled when they learn I use NoScript.