I just saw an ad that said, "Congratulations. You are the 1,000th visitor to our web site and..."
I thought, "1,000??? Did the clock turn back to 1995 or something?"
A business school tidbit: The Customer Relationship Management people that write for Harvard Business Review and other publications think it's high time marketers were honest with people so that a real relationship can either happen or not happen.
So perhaps the banner should read:
"We aren't creative enough to come up with a promotion that means something, but why don't you give us all your personal info and we'll add you to a e-newsletter that comes out twice a day and splatters you with all sorts of travel offers. It will make you feel pretty. And we promise we won't sell your e-mail address to the Martians or anyone that has all five vowels in the sequential order you learned them in pre-school in their last name."
I guess that's too big for a banner...