Off-the-wall solution to mortgage crisis: houses as billboards

I just received information about a very off-the-wall (pun intended) solution to help homeowners through the raging mortgage crisis: offer their walls as a billboard.

BrainiacsFromMars.com -- a marketing firm that apparently thinks way, way outside of the box-- says it is willing to pay homeowners their entire mortgage on a monthly basis if they agree to have advertising painted on their outside walls.

The only stipulations are that the homes are owned and not rented or leased. The entire outside of the house is painted, minus the roof, the windows and any awnings. Painting takes approximately three to five days. BrainiacsFromMars.com will pay the mortgage every month for as long as the house is painted, which can be up to a year.

David Le, spokesperson for Brainiacs, claims more than 38,000 homeowners have contacted the firm so far about the offer.

Throughout Europe, many apartment buildings already do support advertising, but this has not been commonly seen in North America.

This idea may eventually get the kibosh from local municipal authorities and zoning boards once they get wind of it. And there are always the issues that might arise from subjecting neighbors to offensive, suggestive, garish or simply tacky advertising. But it represents the kind of innovative thinking everyone should be doing to move the economy forward. So kudos on that count.