NEW YORK (WCBS 880) - They’re the backdrop at coffee shops, delis, and laundromats across New York City, but those flyers don’t get there on their own.

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For one New Yorker, his canvas is the city; his paintbrush is a staple gun. ”I was working at a corporate job and around 2002 I got laid off,” Martin Forow said. “And I just started posting the flyers and then the calls started coming in.”

Forow sometimes spends up to 12 hours lugging around a huge suitcase filled with ads. “On an average day, oh boy, sometimes I’m working until about midnight or 1 a.m.”

Whether it’s a massage, guitar lessons, or computer repair you’re trying to sell, Forow knows where to get the word out.

“[It's] kind of like real estate: location, location, location,” Forow said. He also knows where not to. Posting on a lamp post, for example, is illegal.

The job may not come with health insurance, but it has its benefits.

“In a nine-month period, I went from 289 pounds to about 170,” he says. But in the age of Craigslist and eBay, he admits business is getting a bit slower.

“Flyers, to me, are like the grass roots of advertising,” he adds.

If the flyer business doesn’t work out, Forow may consider a career in public speaking.