In the ongoing saga of advertising’s increasing irrelevance comes a tale from Britain that surprises even
this jaded blogger. Not content with pasting ads in airplane bathrooms, seat backs and up and down the aisles of every airport in the world, a company called Ad-Air is now launching the “….world’s first global aerial network.” That’s Ad-Air speak for giant billboards you can see from the sky (ugh).

So now, as you enter your final approach having suffered countless delays, indignities and insults from the existing airline experience, Ad-Air intends to apply the coup de grace with an unwanted, unwarranted and unwelcomed ad some 30,000 feet below your cabin window.

Gee, what a great way to break through and create awareness for a marketer. I’m already pissed off and dead tired from the hellacious misadventure that is flying in the year 2007 and, bam, I look out the window and see yet another ad? Nice.

Gimme a break. This is a terrible idea created by an industry that continues to deconstruct as consumers pay less and less attention.

So, what’s next? Chevy print ads on clouds? Superimposing the Microsoft logo on the eye of the next category five hurricane? Why not start selling space in the skies above all major cities? I’ll bet the air space around the Empire State Building would command a premium price. And, sure enough, desperate advertisers would gladly shell out the money in the vain hope that consumers would actually care.