Eat, Drink and watch more commercials!

UPDATE: Stories about Napkin advertising and Subway Restaurants are included in this post. Eat carefully.

As each year goes by, the number of commercial messages and advertisements each of us are exposed to continue to rise. 5 years ago the "experts" said the average American was exposed to 3000 messages every day!

Fortunately our brains grow numb and we do not actively read or hear every one of those messages. I know, you're saying, "3 Thousand!, no way!!! " Yes, way! Even without leaving your home, there are hundreds of ads in your face when you go online. And these messages are not always in your face screaming car commercials.
There's product placement in your favorite TV Show, the cup from Arby's that sits on my desk as I type has the Arby's logo and slogan on it. The free calculator that has the logo and phone number of a HVAC company, the pen, the wall calender, even my stapler says Swingline on it. All of these messages count.

I recall an argument 10 years ago against NASCAR, saying they were too commercial with all the sponsors plastered all over their cars. They were just ahead of the game.

Don't get me wrong, advertising is good, it's a way of communicating either directly or subtlety to your customer. And it works, too. Except that with more and more choices out there to use for an advertising medium, your advertising better be good, or it will be tuned out. Or if it is really bad, it will generate attention too, and enourage folks NOT to do business with you.

By the way, here's another advertising media that we are going to be exposed to in 2008 as we try and eat fresh:

InStore Heads Into Subways: The Restaurants, Not The Transit System

by Joe Mandese, Tuesday, Nov 27, 2007 8:00 AM ET

IN THE BATTLE FOR DOMINANCE in the burgeoning retail media marketplace, InStore Broadcasting Network has cut a deal that will bring advertising and digital video content into subways nationwide - not the transit systems, but the fast-food chains. IBN, which is one of the Big 3 retail media networks, competing with Premiere Retail Network and CBS Outernet (previously SignStorey), that dominate the U.S. supermarket industry, is moving into the fast food business via a deal with Subway, MediaDailyNews has learned. Details of the deal could not be discerned at presstime, but the agreement is believed to be system-wide, and would bring IBN's advertising and video content into nearly 30,000 subway restaurant franchises operating in some 85 countries worldwide, making it one of the biggest video advertising networks in the world. McDonald's, the No. 1 fast-food chain, experimented with a video advertising network in a partnership with Turner Broadcasting in the 1980s, but ultimately pulled the plug on that venture. But IBN's deal with Subway no doubt will revive interest in the fast-food industry, coming at a time when digital out-of-home media networks are popping up in virtually every retail venue. Joe Mandese is Editor of MediaPost. Wipe Me: Napkin Ads Extend Consumer Awareness by Erik Sass, Tuesday, Nov 27, 2007 8:00 AM ET NAPADS, A COMPANY THAT OPERATES a virtual napkin network covering popular nightlife venues, has spent the last year extending its distribution to cover the country's major markets. It has also forged a new partnership with US Airways to deliver as many as 9 million impressions per buy. The burgeoning "napwork" represents another entrant in advertising via disposable paper hygienic products. Since its launch in January of this year, NapAds has created napkin ads for Absolut, American Express, Bacardi, CW2 and Finlandia, among other advertisers. Target venues include restaurants, sports venues, cinemas, amusement parks, colleges, nightclubs and bars. The 5-inch square cocktail napkins offer photo-realistic images and ample space for text messages printed with non-toxic, no-run ink. NapAds isn't alone in its efforts. Since 2006, AdPack USA has been distributing free packs of tissues with printed ad messages for clients like H&R Block, Zagat and Commerce Bank, which give away 2.4 million free packs to promote new account options. Although using tissue packs as ad platforms is relatively new in the U.S., it has been an established medium since the 1970s in Japan, where AdPack is headquartered. About 4 billion free promotional tissue packs are distributed every year in Japan, at a total cost of about $1 billion. By the same token, NapAds is well-positioned through its relationships with nightlife venues. Recently, researchers have described a number of special attributes of bars and bar-goers that make them attractive venues for marketing. In March, Arbitron released a study which found that 50% of American adults over the age of 21 had visited a bar within the last month--about 105 million. Moreover, 31%--or 65 million people--had been to a bar in the last week. According to Arbitron, they include a higher percentage of self-described "early adopters" than the population at large. Some 27% of monthly bar-goers consider themselves "early adopters," versus 18% generally--while 26% say they frequently recommend new products to friends, compared to 19% overall. Another study from Arbitron, performed for place-based video network Ecast, found that bar-goers had a 43% recall for advertising delivered via Ecast. Arbitron's study canvassed bar patrons in New York, Seattle and Columbus, Ohio, in the summer of 2006.

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