THOSE creative advertising industry types leave no stone unturned in their quest to find ways of getting their message across.

Brands and exhortations get plastered on almost everything and anything as marketing people dream up more and more ways of influencing our spending habits.

Now a Teesside garage has come up with another wacky idea. Visitors to gentlemen's urinals in selected pubs in the area will be greeted with an audio message as nature takes its course.

"We wanted something different," said Warwick Maddison, franchise manager for JenningsSubaru.

"We've recorded a humorous message and put it into sound panels. As soon as anyone walks in front of the panel, they trigger an infra-red beam that fires off the message."

Unless the humorous message is ecstatically funny, in which case there could be some unfortunate "accidents", it is hard to see how this novel idea will sell any cars.

Undramatic art

SPECTATOR shares the Mayor of Sedgefield's jaundiced view of County Durham's tower of light, recently unveiled by the A689.

Intended to be a dramatic waymarker and piece of public art it manages to be neither, not looking particularly dramatic or artistic. It is also in the wrong place - that part of the road between Sedgefield and Wynyard being notably uninspiring. But then the thought that a true gateway to the historic county of Durham - like Croft Bridge for example - might have been selected for its location is even worse.

Spectator is generally open minded about public art and has become quite fond of examples like Middlesbrough's Bottle of Notes, Gateshead's Angel of the North and Darlington's Brick Train. Each one is distinctive and unique. County Durham's steel tower is not in that league.

A second chance

With work now underway in earnest on the multi-million pound restoration of Darlington's South Park, amid much hype and congratulation by those responsible, it seems appropriate to reflect on how the once-proud park got into its present sorry state. For 25 years or so the area's Victorian splendour has been allowed to rot by the neglect of successive administrations at the Town Hall. Darlington has not been alone in this. Many towns and cities have similar stories to tell of Victorian legacies falling into a state of criminal disrepair.

The challenge for the current Town Hall administration - and those to come - will be to ensure the money spent of on this most welcome restoration is not wasted through wanton neglect in the future.