The Snapshot: In Plane Sight
Who: Jared Alexa.
What: Flying a Piper J3 Cub.
Where: Somewhere above Wildwood.
Why: Alexa flies for Paramount Air Service, one of the region’s best-known aerial advertising companies, which each summer tows banners touting everything from bars to restaurants to marriage proposals above the Jersey Shore. And because beach-goers are a captive audience.
What it costs to advertise via aerial banner: Depends on the number of flights and area covered. The company’s most expensive single flight — carrying a banner from Cape May Point all the way to Asbury Park — costs $1,446.
Most heartwarming use of aerial advertising: A French-Canadian guy had Paramount fly a banner telling his brother — who he knew was staying somewhere down the Shore — to call home: Their father was sick. The brother saw the ad, called his family, and made it back to see his dying father one last time.
