#1: No.
#2: I don't know.
You may not like them, but there are two answers to two questions.
I turned off the banner under the navbar when I put them under the first post. Or maybe it was when I installed the chatbox. At any rate, too many ads and people will just block them. You can always post a suggestion for a hook there over at vb.com.
Lots of people have put ads in the forum sidebar. I've never wanted to do it so I've never tried, but I've seen a lot of them over in
Rotating Banner System . Then they disable the collapse button, thinking this will force people to see the ads.