beige_alert | Advertising

Advertising is somewhat scatter-shot, but advertisers do generally make an effort to put their ads where plausible customers for their product might tend to see it. I've always assumed you can learn at least a little about the demographics of wherever advertising is seen by the ads. Sometimes it's obvious. Leaf through an issue of GQ, and in between the photos of semi (and sometimes fully) naked women you'll see ads for aftershave and cologne and fancy wristwatches, but none at all for feminine hygiene products. Back when Highlander the TV series was on, I was somewhat surprised by the ads (extra protection for heavy flow days!) given who one might naively expect the audience to be given a brief description of the show (these guys get into big fights with swords and try to chop each other's heads off!). But I assume the advertisers knew what they were doing.

I took this fascinating photo of some advertising in a bus the other day. Bus advertising is special. When the "Transit TV" is working (mercifully, it was broken on the last trip) you get an endless succession of ads from lawyers. Have you or anyone you know been injured or killed by whatever drug or medical device is currently the one people are suing the manufacturer of? Have lung disease and need to sue someone? Have you already won a lawsuit or settled one and have steady settlement payments coming in but "need cash NOW" and want to convert that into a much smaller lump sum? Want a computer but can't afford a crappy computer and can't easily borrow the money because your credit is so bad that even though cats and dogs and parrots can get credit cards these days, you can't? Well, for just 97 low easy payments, a crappy computer can be yours! And the print ads, like that photo... Addicted to cocaine? Looking to abandon a newborn baby? Think you might have a sexually transmitted disease?

In a way, it seems like an odd mix. The stuff for poor people fits the American concept of the bus as being exclusively for poor people. I'm not certain how the lawyers fit into that, given that the only thing capable of burning through money faster than a lawyer is a manned space flight program. I assume they're expecting a contingent fee sort of arrangement. Do victims with good personal injury cases tend to ride the bus a lot? It's a mystery.

What is the advertising in the public transit where you live like?