Advertising in here doesn't bother me at all... It subsidizes the cost of my trip...

I guess you think the airline is making a profit off your $79 supersaver fare to Boston?

Is it a bad sign that I'm so desensitized to advertising that I wouldn't be bothered by something like this?

Maybe it's all a part of the advertising companies' plan. One step closer to Idiocracy, I guess.

If it keeps the cost of my flight down, I think I could deal with it. Besides, just put a magazine on top of it if it annoys you so much. Don't sweat the small stuff people! Yeah, a credit card announcement you're pretty much forced to listen to is annoying, but it only lasts 30 secs! Don't spend the next week fuming about it.

And besides, you could always use a different airline...

I think, more to his point, that the subway is a public service while airplanes are a private service for which you pay more in the hopes that you're getting what you pay for - a private trip.

As for the airlines making a profit off cheap tickets, it's their own fault that their business model isn't making them gobs of money like it used to.

I'd like to sharpie in some fire, flat tires and broken windows on that sucker

Get over yourself. Put a piece of paper over if if you're that susceptible to a life changing advertisement. I mean really, would you rather they stop serving drinks or something like that, or put up with an ad. Airline companies aren't circling the drain AND making loads of cash profit off of coach flights.

US Airways (not US Air) is a low-cost carrier. You'll see similar shenanigans on AirTran. If you don't want the ads, pick a legacy carrier.

@rmz: I'm Secretary of State, brought to you by Carl's Jr.

It's coming man.

@Ray Wert Jr: I agree with you. These people need to get over themselves.

Somebody call the waaaaaaambulance.

This is probabally useless nitpicking, but that's not a Ford SUV, it's the new Taurus sedan. While the safety features of it can be disputed, at least it doesn't have the rollover problems the old Explorer did.

@ Bilge

US Air is short for USAirways, they're are the exact same thing.

@ Bilge Nevermind!

I guess I should think before I type...

Thats the whiniest thing I've read since the owner of weddingdepot.com wrote in.
I went to the doctors yesterday and there was an ad for some Phizer product on the table with the magazines. Thats a private facility too. Do I bitch there? Grow up. You're a big boy- you can handle some advertising.

Better yet, take a magazine with you, look for your favorite competitor's advertisement, take tape and put it right over the Ford.

They should ban all advertising period. Its an huge annoyance that has gotten to the point you cant do ANYTHING without seeing an ad for something. They are even on the floors of places you go now. Its very possible to run a business and be profitable without advertising. I cant remember the last time I saw an ad for screws, or PVC piping. I never saw an ad for Ping Ping balls or cigarette lighters yet they all sell and the companies obviously stay in business so they must be making a profit. There is absolutely NO reason to have ads for things like Coke, Budweiser, Ford, Chevy etc... There isnt one person alive in this country that doesnt know what coke, Budweiser, McDonalds, Ford etc.. If you want one you'll buy one

Do you want some cheese with that whine?

C'mon consumerist, enough of these stories...

I have to agree with what everyone else has said. Of all the things to complain about, this seems rather trivial.

If you're not using the tray for anything (i.e. you aren't covering up the ads), put the tray up! Problem solved...

until they put ads on both sides.


(I realize that if you have a drink you aren't covering up the ads, but you can grab one of those magazines from the pocket and cover up the ads with other ads).

@skrom:

I don't even know why I'm bothering, but if you go into a hardware store, there will be ads for hardware. In a sporting goods store there will be ads for sporting goods. (This also applies to relevant publications). The reason that you don't see ads for PVC pipe on the subway is that it is a poor place to advertise it.

@skrom: Uh, you just proved why so much is spent in advertising. You just referred to screws, PVC pipping, Ping Pong balls, and lighters. All objects with no brand association. Instead of saying Pop/Soda, Cars, trucks, and beer, you used their brand names. It's called brand association. Instead of saying Pepsi, you said Coke, chances are, if you go to a place and pick up a drink, it's going to be Coke, not Pepsi, or something else. You said Chevy when you could have said Honda. Do you see why they do this? Drill it into your head the name, and chances are it will become your preference. This is a reason companies spend so much on advertising for well know products. You just don't like it.

As far as I am concerned, they can make the flight attendants wear sponsor patches if it results in faster, safer, better and/or less-expensive flights. If you're riding in coach (like I am), ads on tray tables are the least of the inconveniences that plague flights. Can we start up the crying baby on a plane thread again?

Take the bus, you maroon.
Try the whaaaamburger. How about some french cries?

I love Joe Dirt.

Nice to see Ford's putting it's advertising money into a product it just stopped making. Next up: Sony hotel room ads for the 20GB PS3.

@raybury: Where have you been. They just started bringing the Taurus back.

Time to add Jalopnik.com to your RSS feed.

because I feel like this guy has a bug up his ass -

Even putting on your headphones is verboten for large parts of the trip.

Not during the parts when you're allowed to have your tray-tables down.

With apologies to the writers of Futurama:
Back in the 20th century we had ads on tv and in movies, at ballparks and on subways, on buses and billboards and written in the sky, but not on tray-tables, those were sacred.

@boreddusty: Ads in stores aren't advertising a product for the product's sake. They're advertising that that product is on sale or special or whatever. Companies don't necessarily pay to advertise their products that way. It's not promotional marketing for Scotch Tape to be featured in the Staples circular, even if it is in the sunday times. 3m didn't pay for that adspace, Staples did.

@skrom:You don't see ads for things like screws, ping-pong balls and PVC pipe because there isn't really any competition in the marketplace over those type of items. They all have to be made the same way so there isn't much room for brand loyalty, or subjectivity in product design. If someone designs a better screw, eventually all screws will look like that.

You see advertising where there IS room for subjectivity, taste, preference, and brand loyalty, AND competition. Coke vs. Pepsi. Canon vs. Nikon. Mac vs. Windows. Ford vs. Chevy. These are all areas where consumers have choice in what they buy, so companies want to make their brand seem the best and most appealing, and most visible, hence advertising. I agree that it's gone a little overboard. It seems like every day someone comes up with a new way to get a second of our attention. Passive billboards, banners, posters and leaflets begat TV and radio spots, which led to internet viral videos and more aggressive print campaigns. Valuable in-store real estate creates competition which means that to generate the highest dollars per square foot you need the most visibility. We start seeing pop-out signs on springs, giant floor stickers, ads on almost every surface we come into contact with. It's crazy but not upredictable and not unignorable.

Get Over it. Essentially this advertising will subsidize some of your travel.

Also aren't the times you cannot use electronic devices usually the times when seatbacks and tray tables need to be in their upright and locked positions?

If it was a monitor that shouted at you then yes we have a problem, but haven't you learned to tune out web-ads? Apply that principle here and get on with life.

Sounds like 3oz of paint will solve that problem..

LMAOnade. Talk about first world problem.

This story is missing cat pictures..
IM IN UR TRAY SELLIN SOME PRODUCTS

Well I hate to say it, but advertising is here to stay. And with the innovation of e-paper and flexible LCD screens, we'll see more ads in more places. In about 10 years, that airplane tray ad in this story will be a full audio/audio commercial.

And what's the deal with the new Ford Taurus? I thought the Ford Fusion was supposed to be a hipper and sportier replacement?

I haven't been on a flight with the tray-table ads, but I find the US Airways sales pitch over the PA system extremely annoying. And I swear I think it lasted 2 minutes. I was on an international flight, and the skywaitresses started bringing these papers down the aisle. I thought they were customs forms, but they were credit card applications.

If that toddler had babbled through one of those cc sales pitches, he would have been doing everyone around him a service.

@ DEEJAYQUEUE:

I believe you are mistaken. Have you never seen advertisements for certain products in your Home Depot? I'm remodelling my house right now and I've spent countless hours at the hardware store in the last month... They have numerous advertisements for products all over the store... Advertisements on the floor for Philips lightbulbs, Gatorade and Snickers promotions, etc, etc. Ads, although annoying, are basically unavoidable.

The idea of advertising doesn't bother me but that spilled drink ad would aggravate me and my OCD terribly.

@LatherRinseRepeat:

And what's the deal with the new Ford Taurus? I thought the Ford Fusion was supposed to be a hipper and sportier replacement?

They're changing the Ford Five Hundred to the Taurus. The Fusion's sticking around.

Wow. These stories (and the commenter supporting them...BAN ADVERTISING) are what make this site so damn entertaining...and sad.

A shack in the woods won't have any advertising.

@rmz: On average, you'll be subjected to 4,000 plus marketing messages (ads) daily. How many do you remember?
While it sucks that ads are becoming more and more pervasive, you do have to admit that the tray-advertisements worked - not only did you notice them, but you remembered them. Interestingly, we're discussing them.
Advertisers don't want to convince you to buy the product they're pushing; they want you to remember it (part of building a brand). The better the branding, the more likely you're likely to buy their product.
It's all part of cutting through the noise.

Grow up, Get over it and Move on...
When are we going to stop whining about insignificant things in this society?

@Ray Wert Jr: Good stuff...

I'm with the people saying, "Who gives a crap?" The only adds that ever annoy me are the nag screens at gas stations asking you to add their fuel line cleaner...I can even deal with the stupid TV ads at some convenience stores, because those have no effect on my life, unlike the fuel cleaner ads, that require you to take extra time to confirm or deny wanting a useless product.

Come one, though...there's an ad on your tray table and you feel like that is some horrific injustice? People need to get over themselves, and fast.

If the tray advertisements are the thing that annoys you the most about flying... wow.
I would have thought the delays, cancellations, cruddy food, smelly fat person next to you, would all rate a little higher than that.

First time I saw the ad on the tray's, I though it was cool. Finally a cleaner surface to slap the laptop/mag/food/paper etc on to.

The day that all advertising will be gone, will also be the day when midtown NYC will become a ghost town.

Seriously, what is wrong with this guy? He's so hot and bothered by a freaking ad on an eating tray that he sits down and writes the Consumerist about it? Holy Christ, are you kidding me?? Ads on buses and or whatever else don't bother him, but my god, one on an eating tray is over the liiine!

It is truly hilarious what people get wound up about.

again, slow news day. These have been part of America West for years.

People act like advertising is a new-fangled method of reaching and annoying people; when in fact, they have been around as long as the products they serve.

"On an aircraft, getting off at the next stop is not an option. Changing seats is not an option. Even putting on your headphones is verboten for large parts of the trip. When you're strapped in to your breadbox-sized seat your only real guarantee is that nothing will invade your tiny fiefdom - except maybe an elbow or errant drink cart. The tray top ads violate this principle and manage to make your tiny, $300 fiefdom feel even more cheap, tawdry and impersonal than the airlines can already accomplish."

I find this passage particularly amusing. First, you had a choice to fly with that airline in the first place. Have you ever seen those web sites that offer ad-free browsing at a premium? Same goes here. If you don't like it, fly another, more expensive airline.

During which large parts of the trip are you verboten from wearing headphones? During that 5 minute safety lecture? Yeah, that's a huge chunk of change right there.

Making your personal section of the airplane sound matchbox-sized might work on some people, might even make them feel a little peeved next time they fly, but it will not cause an uprising. You sound like you're trying to be Che Guevara here.

Bottom line: We live in a capitalistic society. Fighting for the consumer's dollar through advertising is a fact of life. Maybe you would be be more comfortable in a Communist ro Socialist society, where someone can make those tough decisions for you.

@DePaulBlueDemon: Yes I have. The same advertisements I referenced in the latter part of my comment.

Boreddusty was talking (i believe anyway) about sunday paper circulars and in-store ads for things like pipe and pingpong balls. Companies don't pay directly for space in those circulars, the store does because it's an ad for the store specifically, and the products in the store are meant to drive traffic there and feature items that are on sale.

Companies like Phillips, Gatorade and Snickers all sell products across multiple markets in multiple locations and venues. A cardboard snickers stand could be feasibly anywhere, not limited to a hardware store or sporting goods store. Floor stickers that lead to the Phillips Light Bulbs are meant to promote them over GE light bulbs because there's competition there.

What you don't see are those type of ads for things that don't change or have little to no competition, like staples, or building materials. You might see floor stickers leading to the Phillips lightbulbs or Hunter ceiling fans, but not to the screws or lumber because nobody cares what brand they are.

I'm surprised he didn't bitch about the advertising on the outside of the airplane. You know, the big US Air painted on the side of the freaking plane.

Personally, I think Ford should have advertised the quiet cabin and interior space in their cars on an airplane.

And you will see advertisements for screws, PVC, etc. if you're in a position to buy from a manufacturer i.e. if you own a hardware store. By the time the consumer see it on the shelf, the advertising has already worked.

This reminds me of the Orkin Pest Control "Roach" Commercials [findarticles.com]
I saw a few years ago. Anybody remember that? The roaches "crawling" across the screen resulted in a handful of people who threw things at the screen and broke their TVs. Hilarious. Can't find it on Youtube though. You all know the commercial I'm talking about, right?

While I would probably prefer having no tray ad, the presence of the ad wouldn't be too troublesome. That being said...

I sure would NOT like to see an image of a spilled cup of whatever on my tray. It reminds me of the TV ad (orkin?) with the cockroaches running across the screen, and people ended up smashing their sets in panic. Seeing the spilled drink provokes a tiny amount of anxiety (?) to need to clean it up.

They could win points with the ads, though, if the paper they were printed on DID something - like maybe change color when something hot or cold was placed on top. People would interact (play) with the ads, most likely, whether they wanted to or not.

@Xerloq: Sure, I'll remember them. Remember NOT to buy any of their crap due to offensive, intrusive advertising -- and poor quality.