Wanna make an easy $5,000? Tattoo your face.
By Jason Buckland, Sympatico / MSN Finance
Interesting story on the New York Times website about a group of 30 Kiwis from New Zealand shaving their heads and getting temporary tattoos to promote a local airline.
For a round-trip airline ticket or $777 in cash (a nod to the Boeing airplane model), participants – who were men and women – lost their locks and plastered an Air New Zealand slogan across the backs of their skulls:
“Need a change? Head down to New Zealand. www.airnewzealand.com,” the tattoo reads.
The airline’s marketing company calls these “cranial billboards,” and while this idea isn’t totally new, it’s pretty remarkable how prevalent the trend has become.
At leaseyourbody.com, you can actually solicit advertisers on the web to take up ad space on you by posting a profile picture and becoming a member.
Alex Fisher, the site’s founder, told CNET News’ Daniel Terdiman she got the idea for the site after seeing the attention a woman got when she started an eBay auction for the rights to buy space on her forehead for a real tattoo.
GoldenPalace.com ended up paying her $10,000.
"I thought, why not make a company where advertisers can find thousands of people and pay a lot less money to do this kind of advertising?" Fisher said.
There’s a few catches to Lease Your Body. First, there’s a nifty little user fee of $19.99 to become a member, cash which is pegged to “ease the costs of operating” the site.
Second, the standard contract for advertisers to buy space on your body is 30 days. But to confirm you’re not just washing the tattoo off, you have to send in updated pictures of it on your body throughout the month to get the full payment. No word on whether they make you hold up that day’s newspaper to the camera like a bad Cuba Gooding Jr. movie about Central American kidnappers or something.
From there, though, seems like you might actually be able to make some cash. You can pick which body part you want to use for different payments, but a forehead tattoo, for example, can earn you up $5,000.
So, is having a person walk around with a Future Shop flyer on their face a blatant blitz against our personal space? Yeah, probably. But come on, ads are already a part of everything we do and everyone knows it. You don’t think of a place like Times Square without the bright lights and store signs, and no one even bats an eyelash at those billboard cars that roam the downtown cores of major cities anymore.
Advertising tattoos on someone’s head then? Why not?
Posted by: Jeff H | Feb 20, 2022 7:58:04 PM
Not quite the way I would make money but to each his own I guess!
Posted by: rodney | Feb 21, 2022 1:55:39 PM
Stupididity has just reached a new low.
Posted by: sam paradiso | Feb 22, 2022 7:43:44 AM
* necessity is the mother of invention? lol !
Posted by: Deon Canning | Feb 22, 2022 11:54:59 AM
How low have we sunken as a society? Really. I guess Ted DiBiase was right...everyone does have a price. It would be interesting to know where Viagra or Cialis would like to advertise.
Posted by: Fil | Feb 22, 2022 1:52:12 PM
I'm all for it ...it's definitely a better "alternative" for those who might otherwise: rob, steal, sell drugs, or even their body for money. We sometimes forget how fortunate we truly are...you consider this "Stupidity" ??? Consider the aforementioned, that one might do, to make a buck. I say, "Temp Tat ur Head" all u want...
Posted by: rodney | Feb 23, 2022 1:43:13 AM
Like I said, stupidity has just reached a new low.
Look at the comment KKK made, just goes to show you.
Posted by: G.W. Ross | Feb 24, 2022 9:08:51 AM
What do you do if the company your advertising goes bust? Turn the other cheek? lol !