Thursday, May 15, 2008

Hospital Ceiling Advertising


Shortly after I graduated from college a took a job building tents in Miami. I worked with a crew of Welshmen, Germans, Ice Backs (illegal Canadian workers), and a couple of dudes from Atlanta like me.

Things were going fine until I backed off the edge of a grandstand, and I fell twelve feet onto my head (it was shortly after this that I invented the flux capacitor). Luckily, two ambulances quickly arrived. People thought that it was a mistake that two ambulances arrived, but it turned out that a man on the 7th green of the golf course we were working on had a heart attack at the same time that I fell on my head.

What is this all leading up to?

I ended up in a hospital emergency room laying on my back and staring at the ceiling for several hours, with brief interruptions by Indian resident doctors probing my anus with unlubricated, latex covered fingers. It was at this time that I came up with this idea. Why not have advertisements on the ceilings of Hospitals?

Imagine you are in a hospital, on your back, on a gurney, staring at the ceiling, and contemplating your own mortality. Wouldn't you like to have an inspirational poem, painting, word game, a nice magic eye image, or picture hunt to look at and think about? And, wouldn't you be thankful to say, Coca Cola or Johnson&Johnson for putting it there?

This same concept could be employed in dentists' offices as well.

Think of the benefits. The extra revenue brought in by ad sales could lower hospital visit costs without effecting the quality of care, generating positive PR for the hospital and the advertisers, this on top of the brand awareness and good will created by the ads themselves. The general public benefits, hospitals benefit, and advertisers benefit.

Let's all have a group hug.

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