PLATFORM : Latest Beachhead

For all those folks who are outraged by what they consider a new form of air pollution, aerial advertising, brace yourselves. It will take more than a public outcry to ground the growing number of planes that spend the weekends buzzing the beaches, tugging behind them huge banners, hawking everything from half-priced drinks to the latest movie blockbuster.

Advertisers have groaned as consumers learned to zap their way through commercial breaks on television. They’ve moaned as car phones turned the once-captive audience of drive-time radio into cellular conversationalists.

They’ve watched magazines wither and too often die, and nursed a nagging fear that no one reads anymore anyway. So those sandy shores, teeming with people who have more than skin to burn, have become advertising’s latest beachhead.

But before you grit your teeth and ask, “Isn’t any place safe from commercials?” Consider this: at least one group is considering selling ad space on restroom stalls.