Discussion on:

In billboard-less city, can businesses survive?

I'm all for LESS advertising in general, including here on the net. Who wants/reads/buys from these ads?
I especially dislike the video lead-in ads, I just abort and go elsewhere. Hate them.
TOM

Tyler,

No disrespect meant, but of course you don't understand. You grew-up with cell-phones, Internet and Social media. You know them and trust them. To you the old billboard, window-sign system is incomprehensible.

But you parents (and all previous generations) knew nothing of those things. Before you were born, billboards and window signs were the most efficient (yes efficient) way for advertisers to get their message out to the public.

Don't get me wrong, I like the billboard-less city concept. But doing all of the advertising on the Internet and via Social media, makes it pretty hard to , on an impulse, glance at a fast-food window and decided if they seasonal menu offerings.

Of course I suppose I could twitter, google, whatever, while I'm driving...

Light used on billboards gets thrown upwards, sideways and bounced around particulates in the atmosphere sending it 50 miles and more away. Billboard light pollutes public and private space of people who never have a say in it or benefit from it. In fact, their health could be suffering from it. It has recently been discovered by a NOAO researcher that Nitrate Radicals, nature's way of cleaning up pollutants in the atmosphere that accumulated during the day, can work effectively only at night and in the dark. Light pollution increases levels of air pollution. We must reduce the amount of light that goes skyward and reduce light trespass into people's homes especially bedrooms. Keep light on target and out of the night sky... or turn them off.

Oh drat! Which of these huge buildings is the hospital, and which entrance the emergency room?
Thank goodness we have such a PRETTY city to get lost in!

And I think that says it all, about ads. Except for my own contribution to the war against this plague:

If I see an ad that enrages my tender sensibilities (most high-profile ads will do that), I make a positive POINT of programming my OWN brain in the direction OPPOSITE to what the advertisers want (just to make SURE that I NEVER buy from that company)... and as a consequence, I lead a much healthier, more fact-based, and mentally free life.

I no longer drink sodas, for instance, or eat junk food, or spend my money on bling, catalog do-dads, endless "new" music or movies, the "latest" phones, et al. I couldn't care less about the "brands" on my clothes (true, I buy most of them at Goodwill or Salvation Army, anyway).

I don't vacation where I'm "supposed to" go (ad-programmed to go), or drive what I'm "supposed" to -- or even get caught up in Holidays, OR go to "special" sales. Rather, I buy what I want, when I want, and if I need a bargain, I go looking for one and order THAT item instead.

And this also leaves me freer to perceive rank lies in ads, such as the implication that oil companies try to sell us, that they are in fact in the business of increasing alternatives to (and competition with) oil, their ONLY money maker.

No ads needed (or wanted), for THIS healthy lifestyle, thank you ver' much.

I, for one resent the desire to cover every square inch of the urban landscape with some sort of advertising.

It's long been my prediction for some time that in the relatively near future, the next civil rights debate will be about freedom from advertising. Since marketing now subsidizes nearly every product we consume, only the truly wealthy will be able to live in environments that are free of it.

Like quite a few before me mentioned, I tend to ignore billboards, or just laugh at them as most are humorous in how badly they are done, or how badly they relate to anything concerning logic. Thankfully where I am, I don't have to worry about the non-stop flashing neon signs keeping me up at night.

@mlgoff_59
I grew up in a time where TV was brand-new, and internet didn't exist. They were annoying even then. ~NO~ signage at all is stupid, leaving simple and minimal ones like in-window ones to show sales is fine. But the big-boards and heavy neon is aggravating more than it is informative. I can't even tell you how many are effectively blank (ie: buy this space! on the board)
The time for billboards IN CITIES is long gone. Many of the highway ones have their uses, but could still be toned down. Gods forbid clearchannel lose their business. They could use it.

When I lived in Massachsetts they banned billboards. Do your writers have any research interest? Or skills?
It would seem the entire SF Bay, which HAD a "normal" level of light pollution and was tolerable is now ruined by huge blazing LED billboards. It's a profit seeking sin as far as I'm concerned.