Billboards

image from Google toc Billboards are also called hoarding. "[|Billboards]" are defined as a large outdoor sign. They are usually found in high traffic areas like cities, highways, roads, and motorways. These are places where a large population of people either walk or drive by. The goal of a billboard is to deliver a message to drivers and pedestrians. If one was in the car driving by a billboard, one usually doesn't have a lot of time to see exactly what is on the board. Billboards are usually covered with catchy slogans, and eye catching pictures or colours. Usually these billboards are selling a meticulous product or a service. With a flashy slogan, or a picture of the product, passerbyers will remember what they just saw.

=**TYPES OF BILLBOARDS**=

**Traditional Billboards**
Traditional Billboards are signs which advertise goods and/or services that are not sold at the location of the billboard. In North America, billboards are called bulletins. Bulletins are printed on a vinyl sheet or banners. These are then extended over the face of the actual display. Smaller billboards resemble posters. They are a series of printed-paper sheets that are glued on.

**Mechanical Billboards**
A technique called the tri-faced (multi message billboard). These billboards can demonstrate three different advertisements at the same place. The technology utilizes a series of trilons (aka triangular prisms). These triangular prisms swivel to display three different flat screen surfaces. As the triangular prisms swivel, three different signs can be shown in the same space. Another mechanical billboard technique is the idea of scrolling billboard. These billboards can display up to thirty images per side using a role up technology that is controlled by a master computer.

**Digital Billboards**
With today's current technology, billboards can be digitized. With digital applications, animations and rotating advertisements can now be achieved. With digitized billboards, it allows for human interaction with the board. Some billboards can sense human action and in return initiate a response upon the action done by the passerby.

**Mobile Billboards**
Mobile means portable. Not only can billboards be seen on sky high, they can also be mounted onto a trailer or trucks allowing them to be displayed all around town, and not in one fixed place. Some streetcars or buses are entirely draped by advertisements too.

Broadcasting Billboards
Again, with the advances of technology, different television stations can show the same board but with a different company's advertisement on it. This is produced by taking stock footage of a billboard and then super-imposing any given company's advertisement in the space of that billboard. These can often be seen during sports broadcasts (especially football games). The effects of this innovation is that companies not only need to pay an arena to display their billboards, they also need to pay the television station in charge of broadcasting the various events held within those arenas in order to ensure that their ads are visible to television audiences.

=**ROAD SAFETY CONCERN**S=

The road safety concern pinpoints at billboards that are alongside highways. They are thought to distract drivers and in the end to cause accidents. Not only will drivers look at the billboard, but their ‘looking’ will distract their driving. Digital or electronic billboards are said to be the ones to have cause the higher rate of accidents. This is however a very effective way of advertisement, especially in Toronto and all the traffic jams that allow for this attention to those stuck in the gridlocks across the city.

=**WHERE YOU SEE THEM**=

= = Billboards are mostly placed on alongside highways. Since cars surpass by at high speeds, the advertisement on the billboard must grab the viewer's attention within that few seconds. A good billboard advertisement will stick in the person's mind even after they have seen it. Not only do billboards advertise for goods and services, in fact, a lot of billboards on highways show where drivers can get food or fuel when they thump unfamiliar roads. Cities like New York, and even Hong Kong, where the density of population is high, the number of billboards is also high. Due to a lack of space in these highly populated cities, billboards are placed or painted on sides of buildings, and sometimes even rooftops.

=**USES OF BILLBOARDS**=

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**Highway Billboards**

 * Advertisements for local restaurants and shops.
 * Hotels near by
 * Gas stations
 * Automobiles
 * Electronics

**Stadium Billboards**

 * Promotes upcoming sporting events
 * Current sporting events
 * Upcoming concerts

**Brand Name Advertisers**

 * McDonald’s
 * Nike
 * Anheuser-Busch and Miller
 * Rogers / Fido
 * Banks.

**Non-Commercial Billboards**
Some people might get the idea that billboards are all for goods and services. In fact, non-profit organizations, or even the government uses billboards to communicate their desire message to the public. Example: political campaigns

=**EXAMPLES of SOME BILLBOARDS**=

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= = = = == = = = = = = =**Billboard Liberation Front**=

= = The Billboard Liberation Front is an organization whose mission is to alter the messages of billboards. They state that in the world of advertising the billboard is inescapable for those who see it.[|[1]] Using effective culture jamming techniques, the billboard liberation front is famous for attacking the billboards of such corporations as Apple and Exxon.





[|[1]] The BLF Manifesto: Billboard Liberation Front. http://www.billboardliberation.com/manifesto.html

=**REFERENCES**=

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboards

=PICTURE REFERENCE=

Think differently and Mc Super sized from Ron English: Popaganda, the art and subversion of Ron English
 * http://www.dribbleglass.com/subpages/billboards53a.htm
 * http://www.dribbleglass.com/subpages/billboards53c.htm
 * http://reconstruction.eserver.org/BReviews/revPopaganda.htm
 * http://images.wndu.com/news/pics/large/pic_48005.jpg