THE NEXT BIG THING?

Talk about a captive market, said Melinda F. Emerson in NYTimes​.com. A pair of enterprising brothers “have turned bathroom tissue into a new media platform.” Their company, Star Toilet Paper, prints quick response codes on toilet paper, where they can hardly be ignored. When users given to linger in the john scan the QR codes printed on the paper with their smartphones, they get sent to an advertiser’s website. For the companies purchasing the ads, the toilet paper thus serves “as an innovative jumping-off point” to further engage with customers. Jordan Silverman, who co-founded the company with his brother, Bryan, said he came up with the idea while sitting in the bathroom reading on his smartphone. “I thought, ‘Advertising has pervaded so many parts of our lives, why not place ads in places where people actually want to read?’”