I am SO on the cutting edge. Just the other day, I reported that people are selling advertising space on their foreheads and other body parts. Now, from today's news, we learn the Washington state Supreme Court has reversed a Kitsap County judge's ruling barring roadside advertising on raincoats.

Across Puget Sound from Seattle, now-defunct Mattress Outlet in Silverdale used waving roadside workers clad in oversize raincoats that hyped the store's name, phone number and a half-price sale. The lower court banned the practice, finding it constituted use of an "off-site sign without a permit," and contravened a county ordinance.

Sorry, said the Supremes, the ad-laden raincoats are a protected form of commercial speech.

And so raincoats can now be slathered with advertising all across Washington state. Puget Sound bloggers should leap at the opportunity to publicize this ruling; it plays so well into the dreary, rainy Seattle meme. Which has doubtless helped control population growth.

But. As I mentioned in the comment string to my post on forehead ads; how does the advertiser know they're getting what they paid for? It's the same problem faced by small local businesses that hire kids to distribute advertising flyers in a residential neighborhood. The kids might distribute a few of the "doorhangers," as they're called, ditch the rest in a dumpster and vamoose.

Maybe there's an emerging market for third-party verification consultancies.

Here's my own proposal to all advertisers buying space on anyone's forehead, other visible body parts, or raincoat - in or around Seattle. Supply me with a copy of your contract, and for just $75 per hour, payable in advance by cashier's check only, I will verify you're getting the exposure you were promised.

A warning: my summer rates are higher.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at January 28, 2005 10:41 AM

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