I prefer to not hide bitcointalk ads by choice, just a matter of personal preference.
Today it was my first time I saw an image ad. I don't know if this was allowed before but I don't remember seing an image file as an ad in the forum previously. Did anything change recently?

Image of how the ad appears (I censored the logo):


The image of the ad is hosted on the forum. Link

For reference, ad design rules are here.