Mom sells forehead
2005-07-01 10:37
Los Angeles - A US mother had the name of a casino permanently tattooed on her forehead after auctioning off advertising space on her head to pay for her son's school fees, she said on Thursday.
Karolyne Smith, 30, turned her head into a permanent billboard after a large online casino offered her $10 000 to indelibly emblazon its name on her face.
"I really want to do this," said Smith. "To everyone else, it seems like a stupid thing to do. To me, $10 000 is like one million dollars.
"I only live once, and I'm doing it for my son. It's a small sacrifice to build a better future for my son," she said in a statement issued by the casino company GoldenPalace.com.
Smith, who said she would put the money towards sending her son Brady to a private school, said she did not take the decision lightly, discussing it for more than three weeks with her boyfriend Jeremy Williams.
The gaming company, which has a history of outrageous advertising stunts, won the full frontal ad in an auction on eBay that drew 27 000 hits and 1 000 watchers, it said.
"I think this kind of advertising will become increasingly popular as time goes on," said GoldenPalace.com chief executive Richard Rowe.
"Conventional forms of marketing just don't cut it anymore. To get people's attention, you have to stand out from the crowd," he said.
In addition to meeting Smith's $10 000 asking price at auction, the gaming firm said it had also given her another $5 000 for her trouble.