Ambient Ads

A New Jersey-based ad company has a new idea."Beach 'N Billboards" has a special, steamrollerlike machine that imprints advertising on the sand.

For about $20,000, a company can get a half-mile of ads up and down the beach every day for a month. The ad might not last long, but it's bound to make an impression on the sun worshipers who are gazing out over the sky, the surf and the sand ... sand that is imprinted with as much as 660,000 square feet of pitches for Skippy peanut butter or Snapple iced tea.

These ads are part of an exploding phenomenon called "ambient advertising," meaning advertising that is pervasive and all-surrounding. Can you guess how many ads the average American now sees every day? [Ask for a show of hands.] 100? 500? 1,000? 2,000? 3,000?
Fact is, we're now bombarded by up to 3,000 ads PER DAY! This ambient advertising is nothing less than an all-out assault on our senses.

Even if you don't plan to hit the beach this summer, you can't escape the long arm of ambient advertising. You'll find ads at gas pumps, on stickers plastered to apples and bananas, on sidewalks and on rooftops. You'll be subjected to...