Signs of the times: Fading ads hint at the future of marketing.(Column)

Byline: Lenore Skenazy

if it's still a little hard to digest Bob Garfield's pronouncement that "Advertising is not the future of marketing,'' maybe it's time to take a walk with Ben Passikoff, or at least sit down with his book.

Ben is the 17-year-old author of "The Writing on The Wall,'' a high-school-project-turned-coffee-table-book (AuthorHouse, $40) filled with photos of "ghost signs''-those fantastic, faded, hand-painted ads you see on the sides of old buildings.

There are signs for garter belts and castor oil, men's hats and ladies' hotels