A billboard mural (saying "Before the law, all people are equal") being fixed into place by a cooperative of artists along the approach road to Aden Adde International Airport
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world[vague])[1] is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertisements to passing pedestrians and drivers. Typically brands use billboards to build their brands or to push for their new products.
The largest ordinary-sized billboards are located primarily on major highways, expressways, or principal arterials, and command high-density consumer exposure (mostly to vehicular traffic). These afford the greatest visibility due not only to their size, but because they allow creative "customizing" through extensions and embellishments.
Posters are the other common form of billboard advertising, located mostly along primary and secondary arterial roads. Posters are in a smaller format and are viewed principally by residents and commuter traffic, with some pedestrian exposure.
Advertising style
Billboard advertisements are designed to catch a person's attention and create a memorable impression very quickly, leaving the reader thinking about the advertisement after they have driven past it. They have to be readable in a very short time because they are usually read while being passed at high speeds. Thus there are usually only a few words, in large print, and a humorous or arresting image in brilliant color.
Some billboard designs spill outside the actual space given to them by the billboard, with parts of figures hanging off the billboard edges or jutting out of the billboard in three dimensions. An example in the United States around the turn of the 21st century was the Chick-fil-A billboards (a chicken sandwich fast food chain), which had three-dimensional cow figures in the act of painting the billboards with misspelled anti-beef slogans such as "friends don't let friends eat beef."
The first "scented billboard", an outdoor sign emitting the odors of black pepper and charcoal to suggest a grilled steak, was erected on NC 150 near Mooresville, North Carolina by the Bloom grocery chain. The sign depicted a giant cube of beef being pierced by a large fork that extended to the ground. The scents were emitted between 7–10 A.M. and 4–7 P.M. from 28 May 2010 through 18 June 2010.[2]
Almost all these billboards were painted in large studios. The image was projected on the series of paper panels that made up the billboard. Line drawings were done, then traced with a pounce wheel that created perforated lines. The patterns were then "pounced" onto the board with a chalk-filled pounce bag, marking the outlines of the figures or objects. Using oil paints, artists would use large brushes to paint the image. Once the panels were installed using hydraulic cranes, artists would go up on the installed billboard and touch up the edges between panels. These large, painted billboards were especially popular in Los Angeles where historic firms such as Foster & Kleiser and Pacific Outdoor Advertising dominated the industry. Eventually, these painted billboards gave way to graphic reproduction, but hand-painted billboards are still in use in some areas where only a single board or two is required. The "Sunset Strip" in Los Angeles is one area where hand-painted billboards can still be found, usually to advertise upcoming films or albums.[3]
A technical invention called "trivision" allowed three different images to be rotated for presentation.[4]
A digital billboard shows varying imagery and text created with computer programs and software. Digital billboards can be designed to display running text, have several different displays from the same company, or provide several companies with a certain time slot during the day. Flexible and real-time scheduling can decrease traditional upkeep and maintenance costs, and some billboards may measure audiences or serve dynamic content. Using digital billboards dynamically has come to be known as programmatic out-of-home advertising.[5] Billboard posters can play audio using conductive ink; when touched, the posters begin to play sounds.[6][7]
Mobile
Mobile billboard in East Coast Park, Singapore
Outdoor advertising, such as a mobile billboard, is effective because it is difficult to ignore. According to a UK national survey, it is also memorable. Capitol Communications Group found that 81.7% of those polled recalled images they saw on a moving multi-image sign.[citation needed] This is compared to a 19% retention rate for static signs.
Unlike a typical billboard, mobile billboards are able to go directly to their target audience. They can be placed wherever there is heavy foot traffic due to an event – including convention centers, train stations, airports, and sports arenas. They can repeat routes, ensuring that an advertiser's message is not only noticed but that information is retained through repetition.
Multi-purpose
Billboards may be multi-purpose. An advertising sign can integrate its main purpose with a telecommunications antenna or public lighting support. Usually, the structure has a steel pole with a coupling flange on the above-fitted advertising billboard structure that can contain telecommunications antennas. The lighting, wiring, and antennas are placed inside the structure.
Other
Three-sided
Common along highways are free-standing two-sided as well as three-sided billboards. Other types of billboards include the billboard bicycle attached to the back of a bicycle or the mobile billboard, a special advertising trailer to hoist big banners. Mechanical billboards display three different messages, with three advertisements attached to a conveyor inside the billboard. There are also three-dimensional billboards, such as the ones at Piccadilly Circus, London. Traditional billboards consist of a large format advertisement printed on a resistant material such as vinyl; this is placed on a large metal structure, which makes it one of the media with the most visibility and high impact within the advertising field. [8]
Placement
A billboard for attachable paper ads near the market square in Seinäjoki, Finland
Some of the most prominent billboards are alongside highways; since passing drivers typically have little to occupy their attention, the impact of the billboard is greater. Billboards are often drivers' primary method of finding lodging, food, and fuel on unfamiliar highways. There were approximately 450,000 billboards on US highways in 1991. [citation needed] Somewhere between 5,000 and 15,000 are erected each year. Current numbers are put at 368,263, according to the OAAA (Outdoor Advertising Association of America).[citation needed] In Europe billboards are a major component and source of income in urban street furniture concepts.[citation needed]
An interesting use of billboards unique to highways was the Burma-Shave advertisements between 1925 and 1963, which had 4- or 5-part messages on multiple signs, keeping the reader hooked by the promise of a punchline at the end. This example is in the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution:
Shaving brushes You'll soon see 'em On a shelf In some museum Burma-Shave
These sorts of multi-sign advertisements are no longer common, though they are not extinct. One example, advertising for the NCAA, depicts a basketball player aiming a shot on one billboard; on the next one, 90 yards (82 meters) away, is the basket. Another example is the numerous billboards advertising the roadside attraction South of the Border near Dillon, SC, along I-95 in many states.
Many cities have high densities of billboards, especially where there is dense pedestrian traffic—Times Square in New York City is a good example. Because of the lack of space in cities, these billboards are placed on the sides of buildings and sometimes are free-standing billboards hanging above buildings. Billboards on the sides of buildings create different stylistic opportunities, with artwork that incorporates features of the building into the design, such as using windows as eyes, or for gigantic frescoes that adorn the entire building.
Visual and environmental concerns
Many groups such as Scenic America have complained that billboards on highways cause excessive clearing of trees and intrude on the surrounding landscape, with billboards' bright colors, lights, and large fonts making it difficult to focus on anything else, making them a form of visual pollution - a state of affairs evoked pithily in Ogden Nash's parody of Joyce Kilmer's oft-quoted poem Trees:
I think that I shall never see A billboard lovely as a tree Indeed, unless the billboards fall I'll never see a tree at all.[9]
Other groups believe that billboards and advertising contribute negatively to the mental climate of a culture by promoting products as providing feelings of completeness, wellness, and popularity to motivate purchase. B.U.G.A. U.P. was a movement that commenced in Australia and took direct action against primarily tobacco and alcohol billboards. Another focal point for this sentiment would be the magazine AdBusters, which will often showcase politically motivated billboard and other advertising vandalism, called culture jamming. Billboards have been criticized as an example of attention theft.[10]
This is one of three contested billboards in the coastal zone of Humboldt Bay that were cut down by an unknown vandal in 2013.
In 2000, rooftops in Athens had grown so thick with billboards that it was difficult to see its famous architecture. In preparation for the 2004 Summer Olympics, the city embarked on a successful four-year project demolishing the majority of rooftop billboards to beautify the city, overcoming resistance from advertisers and building owners. Most of these billboards were illegal but had been ignored until then.[11]
In 2007, São Paulo, Brazil instituted a billboard ban because there were no viable regulations of the billboard industry. Today, São Paulo is working with outdoor companies to rebuild the outdoor infrastructure in a way that will reflect the vibrant business climate of the city while adopting good regulations to control growth.
The most comprehensive review of the literature to date by the Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety-Queensland (CARRS-Q) (Australia) found that crash risk increases by approximately 25-29% in the presence of digital roadside advertising signs (digital billboard) compared to control areas. There is an emerging trend in the literature suggesting that roadside advertising signs can increase crash risk, particularly for those signs that have the capacity to frequently change (often referred to as digital billboards).[12]
In the US, many cities enacted laws banning billboards as early as 1909 (California Supreme Court, Varney & Green vs. Williams) but the First Amendment has made this difficult. A San Diego law championed by Pete Wilson in 1971 cited traffic safety and driver distraction as the reason for the billboard ban but was narrowly overturned by the Supreme Court in 1981, in part because it banned non-commercial as well as commercial billboards.
Legal restrictions
Billboards are largely absent in Australia's capital city, Canberra, due to a 1937 ordinance that prohibited unauthorized signs on Commonwealth land.[13] In 2017, the Australian Capital Territory considered relaxing this law to allow more outdoor advertising.[14] An Inquiry into billboards received a record 166 submissions, with only 6 respondents supporting allowing more advertising in the Territory.[15][16] The other submissions supported the current laws, or pointed to shortcomings and loopholes of the current laws, such as the allowance of mobile billboards, bus wrap advertising and political campaign signs,[17][15][18] as well a failure to enforce existing laws.[16][17]
In 1964, the negative impact of the over-proliferation of signage was abundantly evident in Houston, Texas, US, and it motivated Lady Bird Johnson to ask her husband to create a law. At the same time, the outdoor advertising industry was becoming aware that excessive signs, some literally blocking another, were bad for business.
In 1965, the Highway Beautification Act was signed into law. The act applied only to "Federal Aid Primary" and "Defense" highways and limited billboards to commercial and industrial zones created by states and municipalities. It required each state to set standards based on "customary use" for the size, lighting, and spacing of billboards and prohibited city and state governments from removing billboards without paying compensation to the owner. The act requires states to maintain "effective control" of billboards or lose 10% of their federal highway dollars.
The act also required the screening of junk yards adjacent to regulated highways.
Around major holidays, volunteer groups erected highway signs offering free coffee at rest stops. These were specifically exempted in the act.
Currently, four states—Vermont, Alaska, Hawaii, and Maine—have prohibited billboards. Vermont's law went into effect in 1968,[19]Hawaii's law went into effect in 1927,[20]Maine's law went into effect in 1977,[21] and Alaska's law went into effect upon its achievement of statehood in 1959.
In São Paulo, a city of twelve million in Brazil, Billboards and advertising on vehicles have been banned since January 2007. It also restricted the dimensions of advertising on shop fronts.[24]
In British Columbia, a province of Canada, billboards are restricted to 300m away from roadways, the government also retains the right to remove any billboard it deems an unsafe distraction.[25]
In Toronto, a city of over 2 and a half million in Canada, a municipal tax on billboards was implemented in April 2010. A portion of the tax will help fund arts programs in the city.[26]
In Sweden, there is a general ban against billboards within the road area (typically the road plus ditch), except for standardized signs such as gas stations, restaurants, or hotels. But there is no ban against them outside the road if the landowner approves. Many farmers along major routes earn some money from such signs.
Many signs advertise local restaurants and shops in the coming miles and are crucial to drawing business in small towns. One example is Wall Drug, which in 1936 erected billboards advertising "free ice water". The town of Wall, South Dakota, was essentially built around the many thousands of customers per day those billboards brought in (20,000 in 1981). Some signs were placed at great distances, with slogans such as "Only 827 miles to Wall Drug, with FREE ice water." In some areas the signs were so dense that one almost immediately followed the last. This situation changed after the Highway Beautification Act was passed; the proliferation of Wall Drug billboards is sometimes cited as one of the reasons the bill was passed. After the passage of the act, other states (such as Oregon[27]) embarked on highway beautification efforts.
Billboard advertising in underground stations, especially, is perhaps a place where they find a greater degree of acceptability and may assist in maintaining a neat, vibrant, and safe atmosphere if not too distracting. Museum Station, Sydney has mounted restored 1940s billboard panels along the platforms that are in keeping with its heritage listing.
Big name advertisers
Billboards are also used to advertise national or global brands, particularly in more densely populated urban areas. According to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, the top billboard advertisers in the United States in 2017 were McDonald's, Apple and GEICO.[28] A large number of wireless phone companies, movie companies, car manufacturers and banks are high on the list as well.
Tobacco advertising
Mail Pouch Barn advertisement: a bit of Americana in southern Ohio. Mail Pouch painted the barns for free.
Prior to 1999, billboards were a major venue of cigarette advertising; 10% of Michigan billboards advertise alcohol and tobacco, according to the Detroit Free Press.[29] This is particularly true in countries where tobacco advertisements are not allowed in other media. For example, in the US, tobacco advertising was banned on radio and television in 1971, leaving billboards and magazines as some of the last places tobacco could be advertised. Billboards made the news in America when, in the tobacco settlement of 1999, all cigarette billboards were replaced with anti-smoking messages. [citation needed] In a parody of the Marlboro Man, some billboards depicted cowboys riding on ranches with slogans like "Bob, I miss my lung."
Likely the best-known of the tobacco advertising boards were those for "Mail Pouch" chewing tobacco in the United States during the first half of the 20th century (pictured at left). The company agreed to paint two or three sides of a farmer's barn any color he chose in exchange for painting their advertisement on one or two sides of the structure facing the road. The company has long since abandoned this form of advertising, and none of these advertisements have been painted in many years, but some remain visible on rural highways.
Non-commercial use
Non-commercial advertisement is used around the world by governments and non-profit organisations to obtain donations, volunteer support or change consumer behavior. North Dakota, May 2004.
Not all billboards are used for advertising products and services—non-profit groups and government agencies use them to communicate with the public. In 1999 an anonymous person created the God Speaks billboard campaign in Florida "to get people thinking about God", with witty statements signed by God. "Don't make me come down there", "We need to talk" and "Tell the children that I love them" were parts of the campaign, which was picked up by the Outdoor Advertising Association of America and continues today on billboards across the country.
South of Olympia, Washington is the privately owned Uncle Sam billboard. It features conservative, sometimes inflammatory messages, changed on a regular basis. Chehalis Farmer Al Hamilton first started the board during the Johnson era, when the government was trying to make him remove his billboards along Interstate 5. He had erected the signs after he lost a legal battle to prevent the building of the freeway across his land. Numerous legal and illegal attempts to remove the Uncle Sam billboard have failed, and it is now in its third location.[31] One message, attacking a nearby liberal arts college, was photographed, made into a postcard, and sold in the College Bookstore.[citation needed]
The Traffic Audit Bureau for Media Measurement Inc. (TAB) was established in 1933 as a non-profit organization whose historical mission has been to audit the circulation of out-of-home media in the United States. TAB's role has expanded to lead and support other major out-of-home industry research initiatives. Governed by a tripartite board composed of advertisers, agencies, and media companies, the TAB acts as an independent auditor for traffic circulation in accordance with guidelines established by its board of directors.
Similarly, in Canada, the Canadian Outdoor Measurement Bureau (COMB) was formed in 1965 as a non-profit organization independently operated by representatives composed of advertisers, advertising agencies, and members of the Canadian out-of-home advertising industry. COMB is charged with the verification of traffic circulation for the benefit of the industry and its users.
Early billboards basically displayed groups of large posters on the sides of buildings, with limited but still appreciable commercial value. As eyeballs, roads and highways multiplied, the billboard business thrived.
Late 15th century – Flyposting was practiced in Europe.[32]
1871 – Fredrick Walker designed one of the first art posters.
1872 – International Bill Posters Association of North America (now known as the Outdoor Advertising Association of America) established as a billboard-lobbying group.
1889 – The world's first 24-sheet billboard was displayed at the Paris Exposition and later at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The format was quickly adopted for various types of advertising, especially for circuses, traveling shows, and movies.
Early 1900s – Poster-art schools were established in England, Austria, and Germany.[36]
1908 – The Model T automobile was introduced in the U.S., increasing the number of people using highways and therefore the reach of roadside billboards.
1919 – Japanese candy company Glico introduced its building-spanning billboard, the Glico Man.
1925 – Burma-Shave made billboards lining the highways.
1936 – The Wall Drug billboards started to go up nationwide.
1981 – The United States Supreme Court overturned a San Diego billboard ban, but left room open for other cities to ban commercial billboards.[38]
1986 – Non-television advertising became restricted – non-television adverts could not show people smoking. This meant that Benson & Hedges and Silk Cut, amongst other brands, advertised their cigarettes through increasingly indirect and obscure campaigns to a point where they became recognizable.
1998 – The four major U.S. tobacco companies signed the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, which eliminated billboard advertising of cigarettes in 52 states.[39]
2007 – The industry adopted one-sheet plastic poster replacement for paper poster billboards and began the phase-out of PVC flexible vinyl, replacing it with eco-plastics such as polyethylene.
2010 – The first "scented billboard", emitting odors similar to charcoal and black pepper to suggest a steak grilling, was erected in Mooresville, North Carolina by the Bloom grocery chain to promote the sale of beef.[40]
2010 – Augmented billboards were introduced in the Transmediale Festival 2010 in Berlin using Artvertiser.
Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a specific good or service, but there are wide range of uses, the most common being the commercial advertisement.
Out-of-home (OOH) advertising, also called outdoor advertising, outdoor media, and out-of-home media, is advertising experienced outside of the home. This includes billboards, wallscapes, and posters seen while "on the go". It also includes place-based media seen in places such as convenience stores, medical centers, salons, and other brick-and-mortar venues. OOH advertising formats fall into four main categories: billboards, street furniture, transit, and alternative.
A mobile billboard, also known as a "digital billboard truck", is a device used for advertising on the sides of a truck or trailer that is typically mobile. Mobile billboards are a form of transit media; static billboards, and mall/airport advertising fall into this same category. Using a mobile billboard for advertising is an advertising niche called mobile outdoor advertising.
Nicotine marketing is the marketing of nicotine-containing products or use. Traditionally, the tobacco industry markets cigarette smoking, but it is increasingly marketing other products, such as electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco products. Products are marketed through social media, stealth marketing, mass media, and sponsorship. Expenditures on nicotine marketing are in the tens of billions a year; in the US alone, spending was over US$1 million per hour in 2016; in 2003, per-capita marketing spending was $290 per adult smoker, or $45 per inhabitant. Nicotine marketing is increasingly regulated; some forms of nicotine advertising are banned in many countries. The World Health Organization recommends a complete tobacco advertising ban.
Visual pollution refers to the visible deterioration and negative aesthetic quality of the natural and human-made landscapes around people and to the study of secondary impacts of manmade interventions. It also refers to the impacts pollution has in impairing the quality of the landscape, formed from compounding sources of pollution to create the impairment. Visual pollution disturbs the functionality and enjoyment of a given area, limiting the ability for the wider ecological system, from humans to animals, to prosper and thrive within it due to the disruptions to their natural and human-made habitats. Although visual pollution can be caused by natural sources, the predominant cause comes from human sources.
A human billboard is someone who applies an advertisement on their person. Most commonly, this means holding or wearing a sign of some sort, but also may include wearing advertising as clothing or in extreme cases, having advertising tattooed on the body. Sign holders are known as human directionals in the advertising industry, or colloquially as sign walkers, sign wavers, sign spinners, sign twirlers or sandwich men. Frequently, they will spin or dance or wear costumes with the promotional sign in order to attract attention.
In the United States, highway beautification is the subject of the Highway Beautification Act (HBA), passed in the Senate on September 16, 1965 and in the U.S. House of Representatives on October 8, 1965, and signed by the President Lyndon B. Johnson on October 22, 1965. This created "23 USC 131" or Section 131 of Title 23, United States Code (1965), commonly referred to as "Title I of the Highway Beautification Act of 1965, as Amended", and nicknamed "Lady Bird's Bill." It was the pet project of the First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, who believed that beauty, and generally clean streets, would make the U.S. a better place to live.
Smoking in Japan is practiced by around 20,000,000 people, and the nation is one of the world's largest tobacco markets, though tobacco use has been declining in recent years.
Tobacco politics refers to the politics surrounding the use and distribution of tobacco.
Old Gold is an American brand of cigarette owned and manufactured by the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.
A digital billboard is a billboard that displays digital images that are changed by a computer every few seconds. Digital billboards are primarily used for advertising, but they can also serve public service purposes. These are positioned on highly visible, heavy traffic locations such as expressways and major roadways.
Regulation of tobacco by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began in 2009 with the passage of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act by the United States Congress. With this statute, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was given the ability to regulate tobacco products.
A barn advertisement is an outdoor advertisement painted onto the exterior of a roadside barn. Advertisers take advantage of the barns' prominence in rural landscapes, paying their owners for the right to paint and maintain logos and slogans on them. Painters of barn advertisements and other murals are known as "wall dogs". Once a common form of billboard advertising in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States during the early– to mid–20th century, barn advertisements have faded into obscurity, as many of these rural ghost signs fall into disrepair, along with the structures that bear them.
Brandalism is an activist artist collective founded in 2012 in the United Kingdom which engages in subvertising, culture jamming, and protest art. Brandalism uses subvertising to alter and critique corporate advertising by creating parodies or spoofs to replace ads in public areas. The art is typically intended to draw attention to political and social issues such as consumerism and the environment. Advertisements produced by the Brandalism movement are silk screen printed artworks, and may take the form of a new image, or a satirical alteration to an existing image, icon or logo. The advertisements are often pasted over billboards, or propped under the glass of roadside advertising spaces.
Tobacco policy in Armenia is the attempt by the Armenian authorities to regulate smoking in Armenia. Tobacco laws and regulations are controlled by the Ministry of Health of Armenia. Armenian men tend to be the most common tobacco users, as 42.5% of men over the age of 15 smoke.
As nicotine is highly addictive, marketing nicotine-containing products is regulated in most jurisdictions. Regulations include bans and regulation of certain types of advertising, and requirements for counter-advertising of facts generally not included in ads. Regulation is circumvented using less-regulated media, such as Facebook, less-regulated nicotine delivery products, such as e-cigarettes, and less-regulated ad types, such as industry ads which claim to discourage nicotine addiction but seem, according to independent studies, to promote teen nicotine use.
TV advertisements by country refers to how television advertisements vary in different countries and regions.
City of Austin v. Reagan National Advertising of Austin, LLC, 596 U.S. ___ (2022), was a United States Supreme Court case dealing with the application of zoning restrictions on digital billboards in the city of Austin, Texas. In a 6–3 ruling, the Court ruled that the Austin regulation against off-premise digital signs was content-neutral and thus should be reviewed as a facial challenge rather than a strict scrutiny following from the reasoning in Reed v. Town of Gilbert.
Cigarette advertising in Indonesia is presently allowed, and as of 2021, Indonesia is the only country in the world to allow cigarette advertising. However, it is prohibited to show cigarettes and advertising must include smoking warning messages. In Indonesia itself, such advertisements are known under the name iklan rokok in Indonesian. In 2003, cigarette advertising and promotions in Indonesia was valued at $250 million. In addition to television and outdoor advertisements, sporting events sponsored by cigarette brands or companies also occur.
The Outdoor Circle is a nonprofit organization in Hawaii focused on conservationism. The organization was founded in 1912 by a group of seven women including Cherilla Storrs Lowrey with the goal of beautifying Honolulu and opposing the use of billboards in Hawaii; members almost immediately began planting trees with the organization after its establishment, leading the program director to estimate in 2020 that the Circle had planted "tens of thousands of trees" across the state.
↑ Nelson, Richard; Sykes, Anthony (2 May 2013) [1953]. Outdoor Advertising. Routledge Library Editions: Advertising (reprinted.). Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN9781136669378. Retrieved 21 May 2023. In 1862 the United Kingdom Billposting Association was formed with a membership of a hundred [...].
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
