TSA Forces You Through Security, Then A Private Company Sells Your Attention—And Keeps Most Of The Money

The government makes you empty your pockets, place your belongings in a plastic tray and submit to a search before it will let you board a commercial flight. Private companies have figured out how to monetize that forced attention. One passenger spotted a bright yellow Ramp ad covering airport security bins and wondered whether the financial technology company had pioneered this. I had no idea TSA bins at the airport were an ad spot Did Ramp pioneer this!? pic.twitter.com/DQximyjVnj — Yossi Farro (@FarroYossi) August 30, 2026 Ramp didn’t invent this. It came up with especially visible creative for a form of compulsory advertising that’s been around for two decades and tends to get under my skin. Since it triggers me, I thought explaining would be cathartic. Advertising In Security Bins Started At LAX In 2006 Advertising in TSA checkpoint bins began at LAX in July 2006 with SecurityPoint Media’s SecureTray system. A one-year pilot expanded to four airports, TSA approved six more airports in 2007, and a 14-airport test led to nationwide authorization in 2008. Early advertisers included Rolodex, Zappos, Sony, Sylvania and Kyocera. Zappos became closely associated with the medium, buying security bin advertising across several airports. More recently Kizik has advertised in trays at Seattle, Tampa, Charlotte, Washington and Houston. Set Active covered 1,535 bins at LAX (about 80% of its screening lanes) for a month in 2025. Free People, Glossier, Summer Fridays, Frida and the Gemini credit card have all bought similar campaigns. Now Ramp has joined them. SecurityPoint remains the dominant concessionaire. Its sales pitch is unusually honest: “EVERYBODY GOES THROUGH AIRPORT SECURITY.” It promises advertisers “exclusive brand domination” of an airport’s checkpoints and says its network reaches more than 1.1 million unique travelers each day. These usually aren’t TSA-owned trays where the federal agency sells advertising. Instead it generally works like this: Concessionaire contracts with the airport, supplies and owns the bins, carts and sometimes checkpoint tables, sells the advertising, installs the creative and replaces damaged equipment. The airport receives a share of advertising revenue or a minimum annual guarantee. TSA approves the equipment and uses it without paying for it. The advertiser gets an audience that can’t change the channel (although they may be annoyed while they’re being marketed to). TSA receives no cash from this. They get free equipment and avoid maintenance and replacement costs. A federal appeals court actually dealt with this program when an airport cancelled a SecurityPoint concession, the agency kept using their bins, and the company sued. Advertising revenue is shared between the airport operator and the private company, while TSA is relieved of the expense of providing the furnishings (and now gets indemnified by the airport). Public contracts commonly give airports only 15% – 20% of gross sales. A San Antonio agreement paid the airport 15%. An Orange County airport contract paid the greater of $6,000 per year or 20% of gross receipts. The concessionaire retains the remaining 80% – 85% before paying for sales, printing, installation, bins and maintenance. The airport’s money generally stays in its airport fund. Federal airport revenue rules limit it to airport or local airport system costs. The revenue isn’t necessarily earmarked for checkpoints. LAX has used funds for checkpoint tables, seating, floor mats, bin carts and stanchions. Another airport could use its cash for other unrelated airport expenses. Some of the money goes to airlines. Under many airport lease agreements, non-airline revenue gets credited against the rates and rents paid by signatory carriers. LAX includes advertising and sponsorship revenue in its concession-sharing formula, returning 50% of terminal concession revenue above a baseline in the form of lower airline charges. At compensatory airports, the airport generally keeps the benefit itself. What Does An Airport Security Bin Campaign Cost? Price depends on the airport, number of checkpoints, share of lanes, season, campaign length and whether the advertiser buys a simple insert or a complete tray takeover. An advertising marketplace currently estimates Charlotte security bin campaigns at roughly $8,000–$30,000 for a four-week cycle. A full takeover at a major airport, or a multi-airport campaign, would cost much more. In 2011, Zappos was expected to provide about $356,000 in annual advertising revenue across Houston Intercontinental and Hobby airports. Houston’s 15% share was $53,400, leaving about $302,600 with the concessionaire before its expenses. The Government Is Selling Mandatory Attention It’s technically the airport and concessionaire selling this inventory. But TSA creates the compulsory audience, approves the equipment, establishes advertising standards and orders passengers to use the space being monetized. This isn’t a billboard in the concourse that you can ignore. Passengers are required to enter the checkpoint and place their belongings in the advertising bin. TSA recognizes the endorsement problem. A Bin Advertising Program agreement required airports to display a notice that TSA did not endorse advertised products. If a sign wasn’t practical, passengers could supposedly request a pamphlet or handout containing the disclaimer. That’s more or less a parody of disclosure. The agreement prohibited political advertising and products directly related to the checkpoint, such as “checkpoint friendly” laptop bags and luggage locks, to avoid the appearance of TSA endorsement. It also allowed TSA to stop using an advertisement that created “serious controversy or adverse public relations.” Government officials decide which corporate messages are appropriate to a captive audience. The original agreement even defined unobtrusive advertising as confined to the bottom of the tray. The Ramp campaign now covers the bottom and interior walls. Passengers may see the messages in the bins as government-approved, because to some extent they are. If airports are going to sell this mandatory attention, perhaps passengers should at least receive something meaningful in return. Clean, sanitized bins would be a start. Unfortunately, the TSA ad program specs only require furnishings to remain in good working order, maintain an appearance “appropriate for a high-visibility public service location,” and be replaced within 30 days if damaged. They don’t require the trays to be cleaned or sanitized. SecurityPoint does promote trays containing Microban antimicrobial treatment which can inhibit bacterial growth on the plastic. A peer reviewed airport surface study detected respiratory viruses on four of eight security bin samples. The trays had the highest potential transmission risk among the airport surfaces studied. Each bin can be handled by hundreds of passengers. They’re a bigger germ farm than that monkey in Outbreak. TSA tested ultraviolet bin disinfection machines at Washington National Airport in 2021. There’s been no broad deployment. I’ve been writing about available self-cleaning technology for a decade, while the bins remain among the most contaminated surfaces passengers are forced to touch. If the advertising at least guaranteed a clean, sanitized tray, I might accept that bargain for the infringement. Instead the government makes me handle them while a private company monetizes the experience. They could at least sell me out for a clean bin. Topics on this page