Advertising on Body Parts

I’d like to begin by extending a warm welcome to new readers from the state of Michigan in the USA. Howdy! I do hope you enjoy your stay. And I apologise if the next few paragraphs are a little uninteresting, but I should explain to the non-Michiganians out there how you came to join us.

It all began in February this year when Andrew Fischer from Nebraska decided to auction some advertising space on eBay. However, this was no conventional advertising space on a billboard or on the back of a bus. This advertising space was located smack bang in the middle of the 20-year-old’s forehead and was available for a whole month.

“As I go around town doing my thing, your domain name will be plastered on my noggin,” explained the listing, adding firmly that the web page designer would not permit “a swastika, anything racial or 666, the mark of the beast”.

Before long, Mr Fischer was the centre of a media frenzy and a manufacturer of snoring remedies ended up paying $37,375 (GBP20,580) for the space. And Soon hundreds of Fischer wannabes were flooding eBay, offering foreheads, cleavages and pregnant stomachs as advertising space.

A man from Long Island made nearly $13,000 wearing adsadvertisements for at least nine differentbrands. A shopkeeper in Canada offered to have his entire body tattooed with a logo for life. And when I read about a man from London selling advertising space on his forehead in order to fund a documentary about – guess what! – selling advertising space on his forehead, I knew it was time to evaluate the new medium for FT readers…

Read the rest via subscription atFT.com