Signs of Signs to Come?

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The opinions expressed in these articles and features are those of their author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of McANA or the opinion of its Directors or Officers.

While Indy sets about battling sign proliferation, other cities across the country are finding out that they are at the dawn of a Brave New World of Signs.

From Boston to Chicago, Miami to LA, billboards are in motion. Literally. Mounted on the sides of trucks, these lighted broadsides run the city streets day and night. From one purveyor we hear: “The unique look of the truck turns heads and attracts eyeballs….”

Other mondo sign companies swear that the billboard market is saturated and what advertisers really need are — inflatables. T outing the universal appeal of balloons they say: “Aerial Billboard Inflatables draw customers in a way no other marketing tool can.”

Oh Yeah ? What about the talking billboards? We now have a couple of kinds. One is rigged with a sensor that detects passers-by and activates a CD quality announcement through loudspeakers. Not targeted enough for you? How about the new Big Brother Billboards that monitor the frequency of radio stations tuned into by passing cars. They are analyzed and, in the blink of an eye, the ad on the board changes to accommodate the buying patterns of the majority radio program demographic.

We also now have laser light advertisements that utilize the sides of tall buildings at night. A spin-off of laser light shows, the display can be scaled to any size and comes with color, light, and motion.

And, the future is now with the full video and sound billboards that are technology’s spawn. They produce the complete experience of a familiar television commercial - only supersized. Don’t let your technophile loved ones see/hear these. They’ll have to have their own with satellite feed of Colts games.

Now all of these billboards really are showing up in America’s cities. So far, we have been spared only one onslaught. In 1993, the United States Congress passed the “Space Advertising Prohibition Act of 1993”. They actually banned advertising in space. And, they actually needed to. A Georgia company, Space Marketing, Inc., was moving forward with plans for mile-long billboards made of mylar and boosted into low earth orbit.

Bob and Tom celebrating ‘25 big ones’ on mylar in geosynchronous orbit. What more can you say? Congress certainly earned their pay that year.