From smoking bans to ashvertising

As the EU’s restaurants, bars and clubs gradually become smoke-free, cigarette butts on the doorsteps of such establishments are an increasingly common sight. Belgium-based Ashvertising hopes to make the best of that bad habit with an outdoor device that combines an ashtray with a medium for advertising. The company’s Ashvertiser consists of a wall-mountable ashtray combined with a TV-sized colour screen above it for installation outside smoke-free venues. As smokers finish and extinguish their cigarettes, the screen displays world news, sports results and weather forecasts along with advertising spots. Mars, Nestlé, Proximus/Vodafone and Sara Lee have been among the early adopters of the Ashvertiser, which is now being used by numerous Brussels restaurants, Ashvertising says. Given how many other places around the world also ban smoking—or will soon embrace that trend—the potential market for Ashvertising’s devices spans the globe. Spotted by: Bjorn Verbrugghe