Men's-room mounted ads, produced by FiP Creative, are seen at Penn Cinema.
Seeing was believing for Jansen Honberger last summer.
He had been approached about putting an ad for his law firm in the men's bathroom of the Foxchase Golf Club locker room.
But, worried about how tasteful such a location would be, he had turned it down.
Then Honberger, who often plays at the Stevens course, went into the bathroom and saw three ads for other firms positioned strategically above the urinals.
His opinion changed instantly. He became convinced that an ad placed there would spread the word about his Lititz law firm, Gibble & Honberger P.C.
"How do I know? Because I can tell you what all three of those ads say verbatim from top to bottom, right now, if you ask me," Honberger said.
The so-called "John Journal" ads, consisting of ads placed inside 11-by-17 plastic-covered displays, are the work of FiP Creative, a Stevens advertising firm.
Gibble & Honberger is among the advertisers to have signed up for the "John Journal" program as part of an agreement FiP inked in August with the Pa. Golf Course Owners Association.
Its ad now is among the Foxchase bathroom ads.
"To me, it's more effective than a billboard, because a billboard is a distraction. You've got to almost look and try to read it. This is an ad that you just cannot avoid," Honberger said.
For FiP Creative, the agreement with the golfing association gives the firm access to nearly 200 golf courses across the state. Ninety already have signed up to have the John Journals placed in their restrooms.
FiP pays a lease fee to the course owners and then sells the ad space.
Rich Fisher, president of the five-person advertising firm, said he didn't reinvent the wheel with the John Journal — it was simply a "stroke of convenience."
He said he got the idea after seeing similar ads at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia and thought they might be popular here.
Testing the idea at Foxchase was natural because Fisher and his firm have ties to the Stevens course.
He had worked there in the 1990s as a golf professional, a job that morphed into handling the course's production of logoed apparel.
Fisher spun that operation off into a standalone advertising firm in 2006. The owners of Foxchase are partners in FiP Creative.
The key for the John Journal, Fisher said, was getting an attractive display that would ease potential qualms about the allure of bathroom ads.
"When you're advertising in a restroom, it's very easy for it to be unclassy," Fisher said.
Fisher said the first ads that went up at Foxchase in late 2008 were an immediate hit. He's now working to sell ad space in the other golf courses ahead of the busy summer season.
Fisher said he's also trying to get the ads in other businesses, recently getting them installed at Penn Cinema.
"We had definitely thought of it before, and it's something that's a real natural fit," said Penn Ketchum, owner of the Manheim Township movie theater.
At Penn Cinema, the specialized ad frames were put up before Christmas. FiP sold the frames to Penn Cinema. Penn Cinema will sell most of the ad space, with FiP selling the balance.
Ketchum said he isn't sure how hard it will be to find buyers. But Fisher said his experience is that while it may seem a little hokey at first, the idea really sells itself.
"The obvious thing is that when you're in front of a urinal, there's no better place to look than forward, and if you're looking forward, it's nice to have something to read," he said.