I recently found a great ad placement, but think it is against the Google TOS. You can check it out here: 95 Year Old Woman in College It may be too, "Up close and dangerous"!!! thanks!
You're right - you kind of can't. I think this is different because it's an image ad - I mean you're not drawing attention to the (image) ad by placing an image next to it in the same way you would be if it was a standard unit. Another one of these grey areas methinks.
you could always ask google about it...just tell them you'd like to know if it's allowed or not...that way you don't risk losing your account
I think it is ok, but I would take Stax_Daniel advice and contact Google and ask them, better safe than sorry. BTW nice Story I enjoyed reading it.
I think it's ok too. The images thing is about not using images to "entice" people to click your ad. Your not doing that as far as i can see. If you do contact Google, let us know what they say.
I don't think it matters too much. Those huge image adblocks don't tend to make you any real money. Bencze