Advertising: using the hard shell on consumers

TOKYO - Which came first -- the chicken or the ad? In a month-long campaign that began in Japan on Thursday, 1.8-cm (0.8-inch) advertising stickers touting chicken ramen instant noodles will be stuck on the shells of ordinary eggs, sold in packs of 10.

"The chance of people taking the ads directly into their hands is very high this way," said Takako Maruyama, a spokeswoman at public relations firm Sunny Side Up Inc.
Plans are to sell some 300,000 packs by the end of the month at certain branches of retailer Daiei Inc.