High Brow Web Advertising

I have to admit I’ve used blogads (I run them and have occasionally taken out a small one or two) — but this kind of advertising raises eyebrows:

For $10,000, Kari Smith has gone ahead and had her forehead tattooed with the Web address of a gambling site.

Smith, 30, who sold her unusual advertising space on eBay, said the money will give her 11-year-old son a private education, which she believes he needs after falling behind in school.

“For the all the sacrifices everyone makes, this is a very small one,” she said. “It’s a small sacrifice to build a better future for my son,” she said.

“To everyone else, it seems like a stupid thing to do. To me, $10,000 is like $1 million. I only live once, and I’m doing it for my son,” she said.

Tattoo artist Don Brouse said he and his staff spent nearly seven hours Wednesday trying to talk Smith out of putting “GOLDENPALACE.COM” above her face. When he did go through with it, he kept the inch-tall letters close to her hairline, where bangs or a hat could provide some cover.

Here’s a teeny weenie question: Do they really think that having that tatooed is going to make everyone she sees run out to a computer and gamble on line?

It’ll more likely get her lots of junk mail and spams from companies offering her “free” trips to Las Vegas and Indian Reservations.

On the other hand, my Uncle Sid once did something like that.

He had the name of a Deli tatooed on his private parts. The deli insisted the ad had errors so they sued him and he had to show the ad to the judge.

It didn’t hold up in court.

So he continued showing the ad for several years but spent some time in prison as a repeat flasher. His wife tried to get him quit showing the ad but he decided to stick it out for one more year.