Back hot-foot and concussed from Courchevel, I can't help but wonder when somebody out there will catch on to the idea of the free advertising potential on the slopes, and the highly captive audience (in all senses of the expression, being stuck in a chair-lift) who spend half the day staring into white space. A few years ago I was in Riga when I noticed the snow-covered frozen Daugava river had become one giant trodden-out billboard, and ever since I've thought the ski resorts could absorb a parallel lesson. This week I spotted the odd random love-heart, and one message that said 'Scotland's Crap' (presumably they got chased away or bored before they were able to complete the statement with 'At Football'), but generally there was empty page after glistening pristine powdered page, just crying out for a marketing communication. If I had a local business I'd certainly despatch a volunteer after dark with his snowshoes, to surreptitiously stomp ads for our wares, or at least our phone number. ("Order online now from your Blackberry - if you haven't yet dropped it into the snow below!") Come to think of it, since they send the piste-bashers out each evening, they could carry the equivalent of a team of bill-stickers with them. Snow stompers. Or maybe the ads could be embossed on the beasties' tracks, so they get laid down automatically? Here's a finely targeted and neatly segmented audience of snow-aficionados, yet nobody capitalising upon the sales opportunity. What, with vin-chaud coming in at 8 Euros a pop, it's not as though there's any sign of a credit crunch!