I do not know how to disable the Brave Talk penguin ad that is on the background of the new tabs page. I cannot find any solution in settings, and do not want ads for it. I did not enable Brave Rewards
@acu_DEFY you see the customize button on the lower right, yes? Click it → Background Images. Then disable Sponsored Images, which is on the bottom of the backgrounds list.
Believe it or not, other way would have been Get Started → Customize New Tab Page and then to do like above.