Download Look Over Here Exploring the Attraction of Billboards

Look Over Here: Exploring the Attraction of Billboards
By Paul Albright
These days it feels like you can’t go a minute without someone shoving a
product down your throat with advertising. Our lives are being taken over by
capitalistic ideas and everything we see is beginning to reflect that. Every time you
open your email or check social media you are flooded with sales and promotions,
but it doesn’t stop there. Even when you are offline you can’t walk one hundred
yards without coming across huge banners selling you something. It is not
necessarily a bad thing; it is just the way things are now. Advertising is necessary to
move units and this is reflected in our fast-paced society. To be fair I am from
Chicago, so my perspective on this topic may be different from others. From what I
have seen billboards are one of the biggest advertising tools used. As I learned more
about advertising, I became more interested in billboards.
So, how do I get people to come buy my product? Slap it on a huge sign and
make it pretty. This is essentially what a billboard is, a giant advertisement. There
are many different types of advertising, like commercial, online, and mobile
advertising, but billboards have their own special uses. First of all you can’t really
avoid a billboard. While driving on the highway or in the city billboards stick out of
the road like a sore thumb. With huge lettering and eye catching designs it is hard to
not shoot a glance at the large signs. The design is key to how the billboard works
because that is the beginning of how someone sees the billboard. After the visual
aspect the billboard needs to have some kind of message to go along with it. The
message can take one of two approaches: emotional or economic. The emotional
approach causes some kind of emotional response in a viewer, whether it is laughter
or crying. The economic approach appeals to a viewer’s pockets. An example of an
economic approach would be a billboard advertising a “two for one” shirt
promotional sale at a retailer. The distinctions between these two types of
billboards reflect how a company wants to be seen by consumers.
I always had a particular interest in billboards. Every time I was ever on the
highway the colorful signs and the alluring messages mesmerized me. As a
consumer I felt almost forced to look at billboards, it’s how I feel many of us were
raised. America is the capitalist country that keeps us all wanting more and more.
On one particular highway adventure I saw a Chik-fil-A billboard that had the very
crudely written words “Eat Mor Chikin”, with two cows painting the words. I started
laughing right when I saw the sign because I got the joke. The joke was that cows are
trying to convince people to “Eat Mor Chikin” so that they eat less beef. I began to
raise questions like, “Does this actually make people want to eat Chick-fil-A?” and
“What is the writing process when creating a Billboard?”
Figure 1: “Eat Mor Chikin” billboard by Chick-fil-A
Billboards are an advertising technique that has been used for a very long
time and they do a great job marketing products. Think about it, a huge sign that is
eye-catching and is seen by commuters everyday. The gigantic signs are seen by a
lot of people, even if only for a few seconds, through out a day and its message is
delivered to drivers. One of the reasons billboards have been such a great
advertising tool is because they are strategically placed on roadways with large
amounts of traffic. Billboards are meant to advertise something for a company to
boost sales. Over the years, advertising has been able to “make or break” companies.
Sometimes an advertising campaign can become the slogan of a company for years.
With this in mind, companies put a lot of focus and research into billboards. Not only
should the billboard catch the eye of potential customers but it should also make
them want to buy products or services. The “Eat Mor Chikin” billboard is a perfect
example of how a billboard should be made. It has a comedic appeal to people that is
actually quite hilarious and well thought out. The billboard stands out amongst
other billboards because it only contains one written phrase, but best of all people
will actually remember the company from the billboard. Chik-fil-A was looking to
appeal to hungry drivers looking for something to eat. Every time I pass a Chik-fil-A
I think about their billboards and it makes me laugh. This reaction is exactly what
advertisers are looking to give consumers who view billboards.
For a billboard to be successful, companies have to put a lot of work into
them. People are often hired just to create billboards. Keep in mind that no person
reacts the same way to a billboard. There are many different things that come into
play when thinking about how people perceive billboards. People from different
places see things differently; something that is funny to one person may not think it
is not funny at all. If a person does not understand the message of a billboard,
whether it be a joke or something else, the whole message is not delivered. This
makes the job of creating a billboard very tough. The bottom line is that the
billboard must draw attention. This is why billboards are often seen with contrast
colors and very large fonts. Visually billboards need to catch the eye of all passer
byes or else they are not doing what they are made to do. This is pretty much the
only requirement for a billboard. Companies have made billboards so that they go
beyond this because they have realized how important advertising is to them.
The use of billboards in the food industry is very popular. They are often
seen on highways saying which exit to take to get there or in cities saying which
street they are on. Big fast food companies throw their new Double Stuffed
Chocolate Dorito burrito and make it look like the last thing you want to eat for the
rest of your life. Just seeing a billboard with food on it can make people hungry and
this means the billboard is working its advertising magic. The reason food is so
successful on billboards is because driving is boring and when you are bored you
want to eat. I have seen food billboards work very well first hand on my many long
highway adventures. I recall a time when my family was driving back home from a
family trip, when my dad came across a Cracker Barrel billboard. On the billboard
were golden biscuits covered in thick gravy. In response to the billboard, my dad
quickly pulled into the right lane to make the exit to Cracker Barrel. Billboards have
helped the fast food industry grow over the years.
There are many ways that billboards deliver their message. Billboards can
span from being comedic to being sad, there are also plenty of billboards that are
purely business. The approach companies take up when creating billboards is how
they want to be perceived by the general public. There are many things that need to
be done during the creating of a billboard. Most companies have an advertising
branch. There the ideas for billboards are created. The branch figures out an
advertising campaign that they can agree will be a good representation of the
company and that has potential to boost sales. The branch is constantly making
pitches for new advertisement campaigns. Once one is chosen, billboards are put up
along with commercials and online advertisements.
Billboards are placed in places where many people see them; this is the point
of a billboard. So it makes sense that billboards are located in areas where there is a
lot of people. People who live in urban areas are very used to billboards because
they live in an area where billboards are everywhere. A person living in a rural area
could have no idea what a billboard is because they might never have seen one. This
is because billboards thrive on the amount of people view them.
The life of a billboard correlates directly with America’s capitalistic society.
Advertising billboards are made to increase revenue. There are other billboards that
I have seen that push other social agendas, but for the most part billboards are used
to put more money in a company’s hand. Creators of billboards strive to be ahead of
the curve with advertising tactics and never want to create something that is not up
to date with today’s consumerist culture. This type of capitalist culture creates the
perfect outlet for billboards. In fact, I believe that people want to and enjoy viewing
billboards. I know I do.
Everything about a billboard is thought out before it is created. A company
creating a billboard plans out its concept before anything. Often times companies
hire writers and graphic designers to maximize the billboard’s potential. When
creating a billboard the main thought is how will the public perceive this. The
audience is the most important to keep in mind during the creation of billboards. As
all advertising strategies do, putting up a billboard takes a great amount of
commitment from a company. No one is going to put up a billboard they are not sure
will make money.
Billboards are made for consumers. This is because billboards are made to
increase revenue for a company. The types of people billboards attract are people
who make purchases on impulses or people who have money to spend. Billboards
don’t have as great an effect on people who are not in good financial standing. The
message of a billboard is delivered in high traffic areas like cities and big highways.
Companies do this on purpose so that more people will see their advertisement,
making the most out of their investment. Before companies even put up the
billboard they have to find a good location. They want to make sure that they’re
billboard has maximum visibility and is seen by a large amount of people.
A billboard that I often see is one with large letters saying “YOUR AD HERE”
with a number to go along with it. I reference this billboard because it perfectly
breaks down a billboard. First, it has the bold letters advertising “YOUR AD HERE”.
This automatically draws peoples’ attention. It is followed by a telephone number
that people can contact to put their advertisement on the billboard. The billboard
advertises putting up an advertisement by advertising itself. It blows my mind how
these billboards work because they seem so simple but they are very well planned.
The billboard attracts companies attention by showing how well it advertises.
Figure 2: “Your Ad Here” billboard
In comparison to other advertising methods, Billboards stand out. Unlike any
online advertisement you cannot exit out of a billboard like you can a pop up ad. You
see billboards whether you like it or not because they are just so big and just so
there. Billboards are very similar to television commercials in that we see them
whether we want to or not and they have some type of message in them. Most
importantly billboards gave advertising more personality. Companies are able to
show the general public what they are about through billboards, which is something
they were not able to do before. The billboard allows a company to bring out a
creative side that is rarely seen from companies. Every time you look a one of those
big bright signs on the highway, remember everything that goes into them and what
they can do for a company. If you think about that you will understand my interest
in billboards. I don’t think my interest in billboards will ever fade, who knows
maybe one day I will make a billboard of my own, but until than I’ll just keep looking
up at the big advertisements on a stick.
Heon, Laura Steward., Peggy Diggs, and Joseph Thompson. Billboard: Art on the
Road: A Retrospective Exhibition of Artists' Billboards of the Last 30 Years. Cambridge,
MA: MIT, 1999. Print.