There's No Escape

PHOTO-ILLUSTRATION FOR TIME BY VIKTOR KOEN

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But there is competition for stall space. Ghermezian says Flush plans to offer ads on video screens within the next few years, but Zoom Media is already doing so. Zoom places interactive signs and small billboards above sinks and urinals in men's rooms, and on the backs of stall doors in women's rooms. The ads appear in 35 cities in the U.S., mostly in restaurants and bars where they reach customers in the coveted 18-to-34 age group. When Comedy Central was launching its show Crank Yankers last June, it hired Zoom to place ads in 500 bar rest rooms in four cities. Triggered by infrared motion detectors, the 16-in. by 20-in. posters played a snippet of audio from the show when customers approached. It probably goes without saying that these ads were placed not in women's rooms at the Four Seasons but at bars frequented by the young men the network wanted to attract. "We had a captive audience for a minute or so, and it was one that was so pure to our demographic," says Richard Loomis, 39, vice president of advertising and marketing at Comedy Central.

This ability to micro-target an audience is Zoom's chief selling point. "If an advertiser wants to get its message out to gay Hispanic men, we've got them," says Zoom's Roche, whose firm knows which bars are frequented by those men. "If the advertiser wants sports fans, we know where to get them." He adds that the company does business with a number of pharmaceutical companies that sell some products specifically for men or for women. Rest rooms, he says, are an ideal place to reach men only or women only. It's a shame that Pfizer didn't figure that out before putting Bob Dole on TV in front of God and everybody else to stump for Viagra.

TAXIS AND BUSES As if riding in a New York City taxi isn't stimulating enough, you can now add to your amusement by watching television assuming you happen to hail one of the yellow cabs participating in a pilot program. The city's Taxi and Limousine Commission has agreed to let seven private companies test their proprietary technology in 400 of the city's 12,000 taxis, with more cabs to be added to the program over the course of the year. On flat screens facing the backseat, the marketing companies offer a mix of traditional commercials, information on restaurants, shopping and movie times, and short documentaries about the city. Corey Gottlieb, 39, CEO of Global Vision Interactive, whose Interactive Taxi monitors are used in the program, reports that advertisers are happy because they can run ads at appropriate times. "It wouldn't make sense," he says, "to run an ad for Bacardi rum during the morning rush."

If a passenger chooses not to engage an Interactive Taxi monitor, it will run loops of advertising, which a rider can mute. But if the rider touches the screen, the ads move to the right while the left side offers ways to get information of every kind from news headlines to hotel listings. In the future, Interactive Taxi hopes to enable consumers to order advertised items by swiping a credit card through a scanner attached to the video screen.

Should you travel by bus, you may also be susceptible to promotional onslaughts. In 20 Trailways Transportation System coaches that run along the Northeast corridor, a company called NRoute Communications has installed TV monitors that descend from overhead compartments. Using wireless technology, the company can beam news, information and ads specific to the region the bus is passing through. "It's a great time to reach people because we're not competing with anything else not the dog, cat, kids or spouse," says NRoute CEO Carlos Garcia, 36. "You don't have a choice in these vehicles you are required to sit down." Garcia hopes to expand the service to other bus companies and to Amtrak trains.

And don't think that just because you drive your own car, advertisers won't be able to find you. On 10 billboards, mostly in California, Alaris Media Network, a Sacramento-based company, has installed "smart signs." Although they have the dimensions of traditional billboards, they are electronic and therefore able to change their advertising according to who is driving by. The signs are equipped with sensors that can tap into the radio stations that drivers are listening to as they pass. The company then determines the most popular radio station for certain blocks of time. From the radio stations, Alaris learns the demographics of the stations' listeners, then relays that information to marketers, who can place their ads on the Alaris billboard at the most appropriate hour.

RECREATION SPOTS Major corporations have sponsored sports tournaments and entire sports stadiums. Taking this trend to the micro level, they can now sponsor individual holes on a golf course. ProLink, a company based in Tempe, Ariz., has mounted screens in 21,960 golf carts on 305 public and private courses around the country. Using GPS technology, the screens display static ads for the sponsoring company as a golfer approaches the tee box of a particular hole, as well as distances and tips on how to play the hole. One hopes that a clothing company will soon provide style tips too.