Disabling flash banner link

Hi,
I have a flash banner that automatically links to an external page, once it is clicked. I want to embed it in a way, that once the user clicks on the banner - that a new tab/window is opened with that specific link but the main/initial tab remains on my site.

I've tried it like this:

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="sample_banner.swf" width="120" height="600" id="xy">
<param name="movie" value="sample_banner.swf" />
<param name="scale" value="exactfit" />
<param name="quality" value="high" />
<param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" />
</object>

I've tried surrounding it with

<a href="externalLink.html" target="_blank">
see above
</a>

but it still hasn't the expected outcome.

Pls help. Thanks in advance.

Because it's a Flash object, it doesn't behave in the same way that standard HTML elements do. That's why it doesn't act any differently when you wrap in in an <a href=''> tag.

The easy way to change this is to modify the original FLA file and make the link open in a new window, then export the banner again.

If you don't have access to the original Flash FLA file, there is a way to do this, but it is not a quick or simple fix.

If you really want to, you can use CSS to make a container, place the Flash banner inside a new container that is inside the first one. Then add another container to the first one that has a higher z-index value then the lower container. This should give you a blank "overlay" over the top of the Flahsh object that you can add the link to.

Please be advised that I haven't built or tested this, and this is only how I would assume that it would work based on normal HTML practices.