At a time when consumers are inundated with advertising while driving, using their phones, on planes or at the movies — or in other words, every waking hour — how does a marketer cut through the clutter? One solution to overcome ad overload is to throw an ad at them where they least expect it. With creative efforts now appearing on urinals, straws and shoes, here are 10 of the weirdest yet smartest media placements from the past few years.

1. Lowe Belgium tacked on a little something extra next to an everyday Emergency Exit sign to demonstrate the Axe Effect.

2. Billboard Magazine made a bathroom trip interactive by installing seven strings and an amp inside a urinal so that people could make music with their pee.

3. Publicis Mojo Auckland made clever use of a ketchup packet and the sauce inside for a campaign against landmines, in this 2006 Cannes Lion-winning effort.

4. Using BuyMyFace.com, a service that helped broke students get some cash, Ernst & Young planted its logo on kids’ faces.

5. Body art goes commercial. New Zealand clothing store Suprette and DDB Auckland put metal plates onto benches, so an ad would be “pressed” onto people’s bare legs when they sat down.

6. The Supra brand shoe has a sole that can double as available ad space, a novel idea from Horizon media.

7. Besides covering gaping craters in the streets, this is the best use of a manhole cover we’ve ever seen. Folgers Coffee put a sticker on top of them so they looked like a steaming cup of coffee.

8. Leo Burnett Shanghai made clever use of a drinking straw’s accordion hinge to promote the Y-Plus Yoga Center in Shanghai.

9. Mr. Clean bought just one stripe at a zebra crossing to illustrate how effective its cleaning powers are.

10. A few months ago, Federico Bosch, a creative at Leo Burnett, Iberia, got a tattoo of a QR code on his arm. Now, that QR code is up for sale as a media buy, through an auction on eBay. The winner of the first auction gets to use the QR code as a gateway to any kind of content they want, for a month. It’s a recyclable tattoo — of a kind.