Something Extra: Prom Insanity

MIAMI (CBS4) - You've probably all heard of crazy excess at weddings, bar mitzvahs and quinceaneras.  Now, the lunacy is spreading to proms.

One trend is called "prom-posals": asking someone to prom in a very public way.

An airplane company is offering to fly a banner with your invitation on it for six hundred dollars.  They've already had a couple of takers, including a teen in Tampa.

Some kids have staged flash mobs, while others have used elaborate scavenger hunts and road signs.

There's also some over-the-top campaigning for prom queen.  One mother in Central Texas has spent more than fifteen hundred bucks on a billboard and newspaper ads!

Even the amount regular people are paying for proms is crazy.  The average American family is reportedly spending almost eleven hundred dollars on prom clothes, transportation, tickets and incidentals.  In the Northeast, they're planning on spending almost two thousand dollars!  Incredibly, people who earn less than fifty thousand a year are spending an average of more than thirteen hundred.

Aren't these tough times? Can't the kids use the money for college? My daughter is a couple of years away from prom and all I can say is that she can forget it. Ay ay ay.