I saw this interesting adsense block on this page: http://gourmet.lovetoknow.com/How_To_Cook_Filet_Mignon (the wide text one in the middle of the post - I'm also attaching a screenshot of the ad). It doesn't look like any standard Adsense sizes. Does anyone know - how did they get that Adsense ad to look like that? Thanks in advance! (screenshot of the ad in question)
Well there are lots of sites with custom ad sizes. Google could be offering them liberty to customize at their will due to the traffic they are bringing in.
Google has a premium AdSense service exclusively for websites who receive more than 5 million search queries or 20 million content page views per month. Premium clients can design their own AdSense Ad formats with custom font sizes, styles and color schemes. They can also create ad formats of custom dimensions that blend well with their existing site layouts.
So basically like what CyberCon said, Google does not think that anyone needs customized ads so only premium publishers are the ones that are needed. If you ever get to that high of a level then you can start getting these custom ads. Also I want to note that premium publishers also have a manager that helps them with this that they can call. Good Luck
Everyone can use custom color schemes and have three font styles to choose from. About that ad unit. It doesn't seem like the regular leaderboard. So, the owner of that website is either a premium publisher or he/she altered the dimensions of that ad unit on his/her own initiative and might be waiting for a ban.