If you’ve traveled by air at any point since 9/11, there are two words that will undoubtedly make you grimace with anguish: security checkpoint.

While screening is accepted as a fact of travel since 9/11, it doesn’t make the process any less tedious or time-consuming for travelers.

It's yet another opportunity for advertisers, as a point in the boarding process where passengers are a captive audience.

But how to reach them? Here's one ingenious way: ads printed on the bottom of the airport security bins passengers load up with wallets, keys and other odds and ends from their pockets and send through the rolling X-ray machines.

The idea came to Joseph Ambrefe of St. Petersburg, Fla., back in 2002. He was--where else?--waiting in an airport security checkpoint. It was shortly after 9/11.

Ambrefe recalls it was one of those "ah-ha" moments.

"I made a phone call to my business partner with a pitch scribbled on a napkin, and he punched a bunch of holes in it," recalls Ambrefe. "An hour later he called back and said, ‘We may have something here.’"

He and his partner, Doug Linehan, set up Security Point Media. Ambrefe is president and CEO.

Here’s how it works: Security Point supplies height-adjustable tables, rolling carts and the security bins, with the ads, to the Transportation Security Administration at no cost.

Advertisers must commit for a minimum of 90 days but are guaranteed to be the only advertiser within a given airport. Brands looking to target frequent flyers like Rolodex, Sony, Kyocera and the web site Zappos.com have already used the program, which is in its pilot stage until at least May 31.

The system is in 11 airports right now, including Los Angeles International, but it will be available in more markets after the pilot period is over. Security Point shares ad revenue with the individual airports but not the TSA.