Some people advertise via social media, television, billboards, magazines and via other formats. There is, however, a trend in advertising that is increasing in popularity and that is Bodyvertising. Bodyvertising consists of people selling parts of their body for advertisers to put a logo, message, or design to promote their business, event, web page for a certain price. In an article written by Andrew Newman, The Body as Billboard: Your Ad Here, “Tattoo-related advertising stunts go back to at least 2001, when Golden Palace, an online gambling site, paid the middleweight boxer Bernard Hopkin to wear a temporary tattoo with its Web address during a televised bout. The stunt drew the ire of boxing authorities and ESPN."
Here’s something to think about, what does Angelina Jolie have in common with Joseph Stalin and Thomas Edison as well as two out of every five Americans between the ages of 26 and 40? They all have tattoos. According to the Associated Press on MSNBC.com, once seen as a silent cry of rebellion, tattoos now possess a status so firmly mainstream that advertisers are using them to market everything from tires and shoes to wine and energy drinks. For three years, Goodyear's Dunlop tire unit has offered a set of free tires to anyone who will get the company's flying-D logo tattooed somewhere on their body, and 98 people have taken up the offer. Volvo recently utilized tattoos in another way, by creating a fictional character whose tattoos spelled out the coordinates of an undersea location of $50,000 in gold coins and the keys to a new car.
Permanent tattoos, temporary henna tattoos, hand stamps, and haircuts are all ways people can use and sell their bodies for advertising. Nailvertising and leg-vertising are the newest niche in body advertising. You can register your willingness with an agency which matches potential advertising tattooists with the companies that want to rent their skin, websites such as leaseyourbody.com, and tatad.com.
