Lenders, Borrowers, and Weird Ads

Anybody who has surfed the web has seen advertisments for low rates on borrowed money. I've seen these rates represented as snowflakes, shingles, peacock feathers, scales on a giant snake, and (most recently) as the belly of a very frighteningly distorted black cat. It's gotten to the point that when I see an animation that ripples or cascades in a particular way, regardless of what is being animated, I KNOW that it's coming from somebody who wants to loan me money. Why? What is it about lenders and borrowers that has advertisers building these wacky images? I can only assume that since I'm not looking to borrow money right now, I'm outside their target market, and therefore unlikely to click on a giant snake that has my home state listed on it somewhere. But if I DID want to borrow money, would the snake, the snowflakes, or the ugly cat speak to me in ways that a simple "borrow money from us" link would not? I might click on a giant snake if it had representations of Copic marker refills on it. And with all those pretty colors, it would be a much better looking snake than the one with the 50 state abbreviations tattooed on it.