It is natural that advertisement in elevators had to be developed.
Here is the confirmation – article from Boston Business Journal.

Michael DiFranza president and Chief Executive Officer of Captivate Network Inc decided to place LCD displays in elevators after long observations of peoples’ behavior.

What happens when there are some people in elevator cabin? They look on the ceiling, on their shoes, on watch… They simply can’t find a particular place to look at. Many people feel uncomfortable in such situation. They surely need something catching to look at. LCD displays cry out to be placed in elevator cars to show blocks of commercials…

DiFranza shared the idea with business partner, but the partner immediately criticized the idea. “It won’t work, full stop”, - he said.

But they set one experimental display. There was music, news, and at the same time… fictitious festive occasion greetings to the stubborn partner. And suddenly he received a lot of call from dozens of people (including unfamiliar ones), who phoned to congratulate him! The effect was obvious – the idea worked.

First set display had an audience of about few hundreds of people per day. Now the company has over 8000 displays, which are set in office centers of 20 American cities. 2.5 million people watch advertisement daily! By the way, Imperial Bank of Boston gave this project $3 million line of credit.