The Last Frontier: Parking Stripe Ads

Every morning we roll into the Cars.com parking lot amid the stock traders and financial bigwigs that call our block of downtown Chicago their work-home. We get out of our test cars and into the office to write about them. We don’t really think about the two lines we just parked between unless we’re complaining about the guy next to us or bragging about how awesome we are at parking a particularly huge SUV. Ad agencies, however, seem to think people will start paying attention to those white — or in our case, yellow — lines.

In California, ABC is advertising the return of “Desperate Housewives” on parking space lines with the sort-of-clever tagline, “Parking for Desperate Housewives. They’re Back Sunday 9 p.m.” We scoff at the idea, but they seem to have been a hit with the L.A. denizens who tested them out. One professor of communications called it “brilliant.” The company behind the ads has been around for three years, and they say business is booming.

Time to give these the KickingTires test. What do you think? Is there no place left on the roads that isn’t up for a quick advertising buck?

'Desperate' Advertising: Parking Stripes Hot New Way to Get the Word Out (Dailynews.com)

Comments

I can see it being really popular with soccer moms shopping at Wal-Mart, who just wish they were as desireable and smart as the characters on the show are. And thats not saying nice things about the show characters, either.

They should post them at stoplights in the intersection. Other than adjusting the radio, talking on the cellphone, flipping through the MP3 player, doing your hair, reading the newspaper, text messaging friends, shaving, and picking your nose, what else are you doing at the stoplight? One more distraction can only help.

Also, this is in no way the last frontier. The next frontier is products with product placement: on your Logitech speakers there would be engraved ads for Ipods or some headphone brand.

I patent back of eye-lid advertising!

Proof positive that an advertising buck can be made off of anything. I am dreading the day where I pull up to a stop sign and directly below it is an ad: This stop sign is brought to you by Midas! or Farmers auto insurance! Actually... that may just be a brilliant idea so I claim rights.
However some tests have shown that with the deluge of ads people are bombarded with daily, people become desensitized to them and the ads lose their effectiveness. Thats probably one of the reasons why ad companies seek unique add opportunities like the one listed above or they go farther and crazier to try to get your attention. i.e. carls jr. commercials (paris car wash to advertise a burger).
Oh yeah, to Tom L. the next frontier you mentioned is already happening. Take a look at a nintendo gamecube, theres a logo on top saying graphics by ATI. Or buy a new game, and you may receive an ad saying: Runs best on nVidia video cards. You can also take a look at a laptop like an HP or Sony with decals all over it (some a pain to remove) saying Windows Vista compatable, Intel or AMD inside, graphics by Nvidia or Ati. Im sure I could come up with more examples but frankly the idea is disturbing and I dont want to think about it anymore.

This is simply a creative way to advertise. As someone with a BS in advertising I think this is excellent. Gone are the days when stodgy old men could put out bad ad after bad ad and get paid tons of money for it. Using new types of media, such as parking strips, is really pushing advertisers to come up with new, creative ideas. Regardless if you like it or not, the ad business is big because it works. ABC would not spend as much money as they did, and trust me it cost them a pretty penny for those parking strips, if they were not going to yield positive results. Keep the creative ideas coming!

I won't even notice the advertisements in my area because of the general lack of parking skills (double parking, parking on the lines, etc) demonstrated by people in my local area.