Stupidiest Smart Banner Ever

Caught this Heineken banner ad at ESPN.com:


It has a single call to action: "Click to Shoot". (Here's a tip if you're going to make a banner ad: Never ask the user to click on a banner ad to do anything. Unless they're in the industry [like me], no one clicks) So I click it and it does shoot the ball as shown below.



I didn't make the first shot. It goes wide. So does the second. And the fifth and tenth. I was starting to think; "What a stupid ad, it doesn't let the player win". And then, "Forget it, this is lame" and scroll back up to the top of the page to find more news. I then notice the top banner. It's also a Heineken ad and it appears related. So I scroll down a little to see the top of the vertical banner and click the very top of the banner to shoot.



If you look closely, you'll see why I was missing my shot. The balls always fly across the page. They head towards the top banner apparently because, as the headline says, Heineken is "irresistible". Oooooh! I get it now!

All in all, it's a smart ad execution. Too bad it's also totally moronic.

From the top of the horizontal banner to the bottom of the vertical banner is a total of about 1,050 pixels. So unless you're viewing this page on a screen larger than 1280x1024 (I say this because you have to factor in the browser menu and borders), you'll never "get it". Sure, I got it but I'm paid to pay attention to this stuff.

I bet this looked great on a crisp sheet of posterboard when it was presented to client. Unfortunately, this ad should never have gotten past concepts. Was there no one at that agency with any common sense?