billboards

Better Billboards

There's a scene early in "Blade Runner" in which a blimp covered in big, billboard-like TV screens hovers over Harrison Ford and announces "a better life awaits you in the off-world colonies." Like many visions of the future, this wasn't terribly futuristic -- imagining billboards that are simply loud and intrusive isn't much more than a variation on the past -- and I'd say there's yet to be a true revolution in outdoor advertising. So I'd like to propose we start one.

Jonathan Salem Baskin, advertising, billboards, outdoor advertising, relevance, utility

January 23, 2010

Video of Moscow's Billboard Porn Hack [NSFW]

Pics or it didn't happen.

By now, you have probably seen the AP story from Moscow about how a billboard on a highway near Kremlin was hacked to show porn. I also bet you haven't seen any pictures of the hack unless you know your way around the Russian corner of the blogosphere. AdLab to the rescue! The video (via) is after the jump and is very NSFW.

Russia, billboards, Ilya Vedrashko

January 21, 2010

Start Me Up: Brilliant Billboard

Billboards can be an effective medium, but tend to be very low in viewer engagement. Most outdoor advertising is designed to be viewed in a second or less as motorists whiz by. Here’s an example of how one advertiser turned that idea upside-down to create a fully interactive billboard: