The Patriot Ledger: Funny Business

It looks like tissue-pack advertising could join Hello Kitty, Godzilla movies and karaoke nights as the latest trend imported from Japan. AdPack USA, a New York company that markets tissue-pack advertising, just wrapped up its first nationwide tissue-pack marketing contest in which hundreds of ad agencies submitted their designs on behalf of clients.

Steve Jacobs, president of AdPack, says his company was started by its Japanese parent about two-and-a-half years ago to export tissue pack ads to the U.S. from Japan, where they are apparently wildly successful. Some four billion packs were distributed on the streets in Japan - where they are handed out to passers-by - last year alone.

Typically, tissue packs are pocket-sized, but contain at least 10 tissues. So the theory is that the consumer will see the message several times as they return to the pack for more tissues over a period of days or even weeks.

The three winning ads in the contest were for Wonderbra, health insurer Kaiser Permanente, and the Cookhouse, a group of restaurants in Connecticut.

The Cookhouse, for example, won with a "Hot Wing Survival Pack" design, providing "everything you need for any wing emergency."

Each winner, along with a cash prize, received what AdPack is billing as the world's largest tissue pack, with the winning design emblazoned on it. The packs are about three feet by two feet in size, and weigh about 10 pounds. They aren't officially the biggest in the world yet, but Jacobs says they've applied to Guinness for the designation.