Tired of all the advertisements you find in magazines? Well look out because advertising in restaurant menus seems to have arrived south of the border. (hopefully it won't migrate!) At the Cheesecake Factory chain, not only are there 200 menu items to choose from, there are also plumbers, roofers, upholsterers and a plastic surgeon. Higher-end restaurants like Giorgio Baldi and Campanile aren't immune to the trend either, though they tend to hawk their own products or the place that sell them instead of the local Roto-Rooter. In the Cheesecake Factory menu there's a facing pace of advertising for every laminated page of menu. "We're such a busy restaurant that it not only gives the customers something to look at, it's also a great place for advertisers," says Howard Gordon, the senior president of business development and marketing for the chain. "People have come to expect it in our menu; it's part of the entertainment." It's also a clever business tactic. Menu Dynamics, a Southern California company, sells the ads and produces the menus for no charge to the restaurant. In return, advertisers pay Menu Dynamics $5,000 for each six-month, full-page ad.
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