Although it appears advertising may face future challenges, especially with commercial-free radio stations and TiVo sets in homes, this assumption is wrong. Advertising is everywhere - on billboards, in magazines, in movie theaters and in online pop-ups. Brand name T-shirts screaming in big words across the chest are no longer enough.
Today, people can make money by wrapping their cars with company logos. Remarkably, some people are getting paid for tattooing their bodies with company logos. Has advertising reached its ultimate plunge?
Twenty-year-old Andrew Fischer of Omaha, Neb., is one of these surprising human advertisers. Last month on www.ebay.com, Fischer offered advertising space on his forehead and was bought by SnoreStop for $37,375. The tattoo is temporary and must be worn for 30 days. According to SnoreStop, the ad increased Web site visits by five times the normal amount with an increase of five times the product sales, as well as a 50-percent increase in store sales.
Now, Fischer has been tagged with the nickname "the forehead guy" and has already moved on to a new offer from www.goldenpalace.com for an ad on his forehead for $5,101. The forehead is only one of many popular body parts for tattooing. Others parts are the arms, hands and the stomach of a pregnant woman. However, the forehead seems to catch more attention because of its "... unavoidable visibility and oddness factor that demands attention," according to Justin Dickerson of the Los Angeles Times.
Is this what we have become? Are people of this generation merely walking advertisements begging for attention, or is this just a way to make easy money?
Copycat of Fischer, Chad Lawrence, 28, of Hot Springs, ARK., thought using his body as a billboard was a quick and easy way to subsidize the cost of his son's birth and illness, according to www.newsday.com. Another copycat, Joe Tamargo, 31, of Port Jefferson Station, N.Y., describes this opportunity as his "15 minutes of fame ... (and) the perfect business opportunity;" Tamargo has worn nine company advertisements for a total of $13,110, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The most interesting aspect of this trend are the extremes people will take to make money, and the extremes businesses will go to get their messages and logos seen. One would think with our desensitized and materialistic generation, traditional ads would be enough to grab people's attention.
In today's society, it couldn't be any truer that money makes the world go round. Whether fad or not, people have become so absorbed in materialistic objects and money that they are now becoming the products. Movie stars are no longer trying to convince us to buy Sprite, Coke or underwear because they supposedly use these products. Instead, ordinary people are trying to sell stuff by catching us off guard with an advertisement on their foreheads or other body parts.
There should be no surprise that the world is becoming swamped with advertisers trying to get the consuming public to cash in. The more interest people show in this odd way of advertising, the quicker it will grow into a bigger market. Caution: human billboards on the loose, don't buy into it.
-Rebecca Steinberger is an undeclared freshman.
-This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Daily Aztec. Send e-mail to letters@thedailyaztec.com. Anonymous letters will not be printed - include your full name, major and year in school.
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