When it comes to advertising, sometimes less is more.
On my USAir flight yesterday I was surprised when I lowered my tray table to find this:

That's pretty creative I thought.
The people on either side of me (yes, I was lucky enough at 6'2" to get the coveted "middle seat") seemed to think it was interesting too as I caught the furtive glances at my tray table.
When the passengers next to me lowered their tray tables and saw ads as well, I must admit it seemed a bit less creative.

To Panasonic's credit, the three ads were different - which was a plus.

What would have been better is to place one ad per row - with text that talked about letting the other people in the row see the ad too. This approach would encourage interaction (people on planes talk to each other anyway) and at the very least leave people curious. Placing an ad on every tray (a glance around the rest of the plane saw the same ads repeated on every tray table) makes it less unique, less creative, and less likely to get my attention.
They say it takes seven impressions to make an impact. That may be true - but don't do all seven at once okay?


