Ads on Toilet Paper, for Marketing’s Real Bottom Feeders

Are you brave enough to put your brand logo and advertising message right where you customer can, and surely will—let's be frank here—smear it with his own excrement? Jordan and Bryan Silverman trust that you are. The brothers have started a company in Ann Arbor, Mich., called Star Toilet Paper, which specializes in printing ads and coupons on toilet paper. The minimum order is $99 for 20,000 ads, or about half a cent per ad. Ads have been around in urinals for some time, but toilet paper, as a medium, truly is a nether region. "It takes advertisers a couple of seconds to wrap their heads around advertising on toilet paper," Jordan tells the Detroit Free Press. "No one has ever tried to do this." Adds Bryan: "I really did think Jordan was a little crazy at first. But I love working with him." We've seen things like this before, mostly in jest. Modernista! famously printed 30 Rock-themed promo toilet paper once, so you could wipe your butt with Alec Baldwin. But this is no gimmick. The Silvermans say they've signed up 50 local advertisers. "We thought it was hilarious. Everybody uses it. Who doesn't need it?" said Barby Checchi, a manager at tropical-fish store Fish Doctors. Jim Koli, owner of Northside Grill in Ann Arbor, said, evidently with a straight face, "It's just getting rolling. … It was unique, and at a certain level it was absurd enough that it would be interesting to do." If only all clients were so daring. Check out Star's TP's first couple of homemade self-promo spots below. And wash your hands before returning to work.