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!