Billboard

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.

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).

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.

These large, painted billboards were especially popular in Los Angeles where historic firms such as Foster & Kleiser and Pacific Outdoor Advertising dominated the industry.

The "Sunset Strip" in Los Angeles is one area where hand-painted billboards can still be found, usually to advertise upcoming films or albums.

Flexible and real-time scheduling can decrease traditional upkeep and maintenance costs, and some billboards may measure audiences or serve dynamic content.

They can be placed wherever there is heavy foot traffic due to an event – including convention centers, train stations, airports, and sports arenas.

[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.

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.

[10] 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.

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.

[13] 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.

Billboards are largely absent in Australia's capital city, Canberra, due to a 1937 ordinance that prohibited unauthorized signs on Commonwealth land.

[17][18] 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.

The act applied only to "Federal Aid Primary" and "Defense" highways and limited billboards to commercial and industrial zones created by states and municipalities.

The act requires states to maintain "effective control" of billboards or lose 10% of their federal highway dollars.

Around major holidays, volunteer groups erected highway signs offering free coffee at rest stops.

[23][24] In São Paulo, a city of twelve million in Brazil, Billboards and advertising on vehicles have been banned since January 2007.

Many signs advertise local restaurants and shops in the coming miles and are crucial to drawing business in small towns.

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.

[citation needed] In a parody of the Marlboro Man, some billboards depicted cowboys riding on ranches with slogans like "Bob, I miss my lung."

"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.

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.

Early billboards basically displayed groups of large posters on the sides of buildings, with limited but still appreciable commercial value.