Article Surfing Archive

It started when someone tacked the daily paper in men's room above the urinals. The idea soon spread to the stall in the ladies room and a new form of advertising was born.

It is now so common place there are companies that represent thousands of "johns" to advertisers, giving each restaurant and bus stop owner a modest income for the use of walls and stalls.

In the never-ending quest to find ad space, some parking garages have sold painted billboards you have to stare at as you make your way to the end for another U turn while going up or down.

The newest trend is at the gas pump. What is there to do while you stand there holding the nozzle open wishing for the old days when the man who wears the star was taking car of your car (If you are too young to remember that one, I am sorry).

So what do you do while you stand there? Read the ad on the pump handle, of course. A pitch for cell phone minutes, or a tasty photo of a sandwich inside. Some more sophisticated stations have small TV screens next to the credit card slot on the pump that present a solid stream of color commercials, both local and national.

Radio used to be the only non intrusive advertising medium. Meaning that you could get the commercials while you did something else, as opposed to the newspaper that you had to look at to read and see the ads, or TV that requires you to sit and watch. But ads pasted to restroom stalls or over urinals or painted on garage walls and ads on pump nozzles are also non- intrusive. You are doing something else while you "get the message"

What can you do with your business to put your message where people can, and must, see it? Are you doing everything you can at your business to exploit empty space to make a sales point?

Grocery stores post their newspaper ad at the door.

Many offer piles of flyers in case you left your coupons at home.

Big box stores have discovered the joy of covering a colorful ad with plastic and taping it to the floor so you have to walk on it and you aren't going to step on something unless you know its safe to do so. Gothca!

Discuss unique adverting possibilities with associates, or people in your same business in other markets. If you think about it, you too, can come up with something as good as, or better than, ads in the john!