• by January 6, 2005

HERE'S MUD IN YOUR EYE -- We can just see the pitch for this new media offering now.

Sales rep: "It's guaranteed to deliver 61,000 impressions per month, with an extraordinarily high recall rate and all for a CPM of less than $1."
Media buyer: "Let me get this straight, you want me to place my client's ads on mud flaps? Those things that hang on the back of trucks."
Rep: "Yeah!"
Buyer: "But aren't they covered with mud?"
Rep: "We use a special type of plastic that stays cleaner than the ordinary rubber flap that are guaranteed to keep you clients message clean and easy to read."
Buyer: "But they're mud flaps."
Rep: "That's right, and they're guaranteed to breakthrough the clutter in high traffic areas."
Buyer: "But they're mud flaps."

It's a conversation that intrepid entrepreneur Jeff Heilbrun must be hearing replayed over and over and over again, as he pitches his FlapMedia concept to marketers and agencies nationwide. But Heilbrun has a pretty compelling response that may just break through the most fermented Madison Avenue cynics.

"Our new medium is different from other mobile advertising," he boasts, noting, "A driver has to focus on the flaps when passing a truck, so we offer creative and fun opportunities without jeopardizing driver safety. We're placing advertising where eyes are already looking."

And while that may be a problem for many products and brands who won't necessarily want to be associated with places fixated in the undercarriage of a semi-tractor-trailer, we can think of a few that may be perfectly suited. Windex? Bounty paper towels? Meineke (muffler and break repairs).