Taking outdoor advertising to the air

A start-up company based in London called Ad-Air has come up with a new way to turn innocent and unassuming airline passengers into potential consumers. The "first global aerial advertising network" will consist of giant, billboard-like ads that are visible from a passenger's window as they approach the runway.

They have already secured approval to set up sites at over a dozen airports, including Heathrow, LAX, Charles de Gaulle (Paris), Hartsfield-Jackson (ATL) and Haneda in Tokyo. Ad-Air is looking to create a network of roughly 30 airports. Advertisers pay over $100k/month for a site, with some of the busier airports eventually fetching up to over $160k/month.

I personally don't find this creative at all. Finding different places to cram this shit down people's throats is not innovative, nor is it effective. Maybe the duty-free stores will be the first ones to try this out...

The best idea for any form of outdoor advertising I have heard was about 10 years ago when my dad told me about 2 guys from Harvard developing technology to place advertising in the subway tunnels. A series of illuminated still frames placed on the walls inside the tunnel would create the effect of an actual commercial during your subway ride i.e. an athlete drinking a bottle of Gatorade.

You can read the whole article here on NYTimes.com.