I don't mind, but explaining what? What means undue? OK but maybe with a little help of Google: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=define:undue like "excessive: beyond normal limits / not appropriate in the circumstances / lacking justification" So as others said already, a flashing arrow pointing to the ads is undue attention, saying "hey look at those adsense ads.... hehehe... hihihi... aren't they good looking..... ?" is once again undue attention. But making the ads look good, blending them in the site design, or saying "I've added adsense ads to my site because blablabla" is not undue attention. Well, that's in my mind, so I'm 100% sure there's no problem with backgrounds.
If you want the real answers you ask the right questions to the right people I posted about this Last Friday The short version of the questions I asked were Use of Adsense Backgrounds Context with Chitika Search on Chitika Placement of a Chitika eMiniMal that contains images next to an Adsense rectangle Jensense only covered the second of those questions http://andybeard.eu/2007/01/adsense-guidelines-contextual-ads-adsense-backgrounds.html
That actually does NOT answer the original question, because we are talking here in the main about pictures that are part of the design, not decorative pictures added next to adsense to attract attention to the ads.
Well my answer was very specific, I had given the Google rep a link directly to the Adsense Backgrounds website, and showed them an example site on which I was using them and they gave me an answer which I listed in full. They mistook it as being CSS rather than the table structure used in the Adsense Backgrounds snippets, but it is the exact same product as the original question.
in my opinion - it's a no no. they are making the ads look like something they are not - part of the site or the content. also, they are bringing undue attention to the ads. i think they won't be allowed but it's always good to ask. the one on soccerblaze looks okay though.
No Offense Samzach, but you are wrong. Andybeard and I (as you can see on my site http://adclustr.com/) were both told by Google that it was OK to use background images on adsense (whether by CSS, tables or whatever else..)...
Lol thanks, I didn't want the definition but I wanted examples for both which you have done so thanks once again. Well I think using Backgrounds does not make the ads look like something else, just blends them more (or less depends). At the end of the day, Ads by Google is still shown so ppl can still see that they're clearly ads. Thanks to cagintranet and AndyBeard for confirming it
The pictures above, or to the side of the ads are totally different from the background images. (except that pumpkin one, which looks like there is a pumpkin image to the side.) The reason those are not okay, is because they can trick users in to thinking that when they click, they will be taken to what is in the picture. This is not true of most of those backgrounds. But hey, thats just my take. For a 100% legit response, just write the google folks. If you do, please post the response here.
I agree... there are two types of background images in question here. There are some of the ones shown as examples on adbackground.com and adsensebackgrounds.com that look completely shady. When you try to make an ad look like a pumpkin or a computer or even a calendar you are getting too close to misleading visitors into thinking they are clicking on something that they in reality not. On my site adClustr.com i personally make sure that none of the background images are too specific. My site was approved by Google so we have no worries there. Bottom line is that there are good backgrounds and there are bad backgrounds. If you have to ask yourself "eehh, does this look legal", more than likely it isn't.
cagintranet - This quote really sums it up... "If you have to ask yourself "eehh, does this look legal", more than likely it isn't." BTW - thats a decent site you have there...kudos
@grobar - Thanks... i have put a lot of time into it, and i actually created it before i even knew of the other "paid" background sites. I am glad you like it and i hope that it starts to generate soem good traffic for me and results for the people who use it.
I don't think that I have to ask Adsense, both of the replies from grobar and cagintranet pretty much say it all and I happen to agree with them on this. If one is not misleading people into thinking that an ad is about a certain picture that is close to it, then one should be fine. and as cagintranet has said, there are bad backgrounds and backgrounds, if you are looking for backgrounds (extremely good ones that is) make sure to look at the examples cagintranet has