The Last Frontier: Parking Stripe Ads

Every morning we roll into the Cars.com parking lot amid the stock traders and financial bigwigs that call our block of downtown Chicago their work-home. We get out of our test cars and into the office to write about them. We don’t really think about the two lines we just parked between unless we’re complaining about the guy next to us or bragging about how awesome we are at parking a particularly huge SUV. Ad agencies, however, seem to think people will start paying attention to those white — or in our case, yellow — lines.

In California, ABC is advertising the return of “Desperate Housewives” on parking space lines with the sort-of-clever tagline, “Parking for Desperate Housewives. They’re Back Sunday 9 p.m.” We scoff at the idea, but they seem to have been a hit with the L.A. denizens who tested them out. One professor of communications called it “brilliant.” The company behind the ads has been around for three years, and they say business is booming.

Time to give these the KickingTires test. What do you think? Is there no place left on the roads that isn’t up for a quick advertising buck?

‘Desperate’ Advertising: Parking Stripes Hot New Way to Get the Word Out (Dailynews.com)