Eggs as Billboards

With the effectiveness of TV advertising and overall viewership on the decline, how else can a TV network promote its fall lineup? The solution is obvious -- put advertisements on eggs!

Egg-centric? Egg-xotic? Perhaps. But how better to catch the eye of fickle viewers than when they're preparing their sunny-side-up? The marketing eggheads at CBS plan to brand 35 million eggs this September with tag lines promoting the network's new and returning shows. Phrases include "CSI: Crack the Case on CBS" and "The Class, New Grade-A CBS Comedy." (rimshots, please!)

To produce the eggs, CBS is partnering with EggFusion, which has developed laser technology to produce "OnEgg Messaging." Originally created to emboss expiration dates on individual eggs, the technology can print virtually any kind of marketing message. Considering that Americans consume 50 billion eggs a year, that's an egg-tremely high number of potential impressions.

One must wonder if CBS will see a spike in viewership this fall among short-order cooks... of if they'll just end up with egg on their face. But even if egg-vertising doesn't crack you up, remember that not that long ago, people thought placing ads on websites was a pretty weird idea, too.

Source: AP (via Yahoo)