I made a trip to Kuala Lumpur over last Friday and Saturday to attend an event in Malaysia. I took a Tiger Airways trip there – so I was at the LCCT (Low Cost Carrier Terminal). Before I made my way to my hotel, I went to the Food Court at LCCT to have a quick meal, and as I was there, I can’t help but notice the advertising.

There was this thing about advertising in mirrors, like this:

Basically, they build in the advertisement poster into the mirror, so while you are trying to clean up all the laksa gravy and remains of the Tiramisu cake from your mouth, the poster pops up and tells you there is a cheaper way to fly.

Well, technology wise, it sounds like a great “interruption marketing” idea (read Seth Godin’s “Permission Marketing” for the difference between Interruption Marketing and Permission Marketing), except that the implementation at the LCCT food court really can be improved on.

Why do I say so? The mirrors are installed at locations at absurd locations!

Instead of installing the mirrors at wash basin where people would go there to wash up and clean up their mouths and hands, somehow they decided to put the mirrors just beside the exit.

Who would stop, look at the mirror (and the ad) to clean up their mouth just before they leave the food court?

In the toilet (sorry no photographs there ), it was the same. They put the mirror separate from the regular wash basins. In fact, they installed it at the entrance of the toilet, so “it will be perfectly visible” when you enter the toilet. Question is: would you stop to look at the mirror on your way in to the toilet? Well, at least, I won’t. I will be more concerned about getting my toilet business done first!

If you want to design an interruption marketing mechanism like this, at least, interrupt people where they are already looking for mirrors. I’d be amazed if this implementation of the advertising on mirrors are going to bring any real results.