Yesterday a buddy at work noticed something very odd on Ain’t it Cool News: McDonalds ads, one rich media (flash) and the other the large rectangle text ad you see in our comments section. Think about that for a second. McDonalds is a company that isn’t really selling anything online and that usually does brand advertising (e.g. advertising on ESPN.com because their target demo visit the site heavily). Yet, they’re distributing advertising targeted to Ain’t it Cool via Google’s system.

I’ve been seeing more an more mainstream ads in general, marking an important shift in their advertiser base. Everything from semi-fringe companies/brands/people like William Shatner:

Shatner DVD ad

to large companies like McDonalds and Microsoft:

Google Ad Example - Microsoft

Sorry, I didn’t get a screen shot of the McDonalds ads… they’ve disappeared today.

It looks like Google may truly be making the best advertising marketplace out there. This will be pretty significant, especially if they’re not matched by Yahoo or the other ad networks out there.