The guy who had the bright idea of putting A3 sheet ads above the urinals in men’s public toilets has reserved his place in marketing heaven. According to Admedia, ads in little boys’ rooms up and down the UK collect 44.6 million impressions per four-week buying cycle.

Ladies, any gentleman will tell you that the moments he takes to enjoy ‘the pause that refreshes’ are reflective, contemplative ones. His mind is receptive, and he finds himself staring at the poster a few inches in front of his nose for anything up to a minute. That’s much longer than he’d look at the majority of newspaper and web advertising.

A urinal ad, is, therefore, a powerful tool. However - and here’s a thought that strikes many a man as he targets the porcelain - powerful tools need careful handling.

Not so long ago, in a service station, I saw what may have been some very bad handling of the medium - equally, it may have been brilliant, if a little sinister. Two Admedia ads were running in the gents’ washroom, each with half a dozen boards alternating across the wall. One was for online gambling giant www.888.com. The other was for a debt consolidation company.

This arrangement might suit the finance firm, but I initially found it unlikely that the guys at 888 would be too pleased to have their ads parked next to others that underlined the misery of uncontrolled debt.

So was this the result of a screw-up? Or an Admedia employee with a subversive sense of humour? Or was there some cunning strategy at work?

You could argue that the presence of the debt consolidation ad might allay the doubts of a potential gambler. The prospect says to himself, ‘OK, I might lose a ton of money, but I might just get rich. If I get deep into debt, these consolidation guys promise they can help me out, so maybe debt’s not such a big deal… I might as well have a punt.’

Likely, unlikely, or has working in the ad industry just made me hyper-suspicious?