Digital Distractions

Technology continues to make our world faster paced everyday and what better evidence than digital billboards. Basically called a “TV on a stick” by The New York Times, these large electronic billboards are able to display multiple adds instead of just having your generic painted on add being displayed for months at a time. Instead, advertisers rotate every five to six seconds between adds. This allows for more advertisers to take up a single spot and is beneficial to the advertising company because they can now make five or six times the profit on a single location than what was originally projected. This is a perfect example of faster paced. You are getting more profit quicker and showing more advertisements in the same amount of space.

This new sense of speed in the advertising market is causing some rumblings with some activist groups such as Scenic Michigan. Problems arise when you take into consideration the ability to post rich colors that never fade and are bright at night. It is easy to see how these new billboards can grab your attention away from the road. Ironically however, I’ve always thought the purpose of a billboard was to get you to look at them. So in a sense, they are doing their job very well, but that would have to be the same as saying cigarettes are doing their job well also. Michigan lawmakers have even gone as far to put a hold on the building of these signs for two years, even though there has been no clear evidence that this new type of advertising is going to cause more crashes.

I, personally, am a fan of this new technology. Instead of creating multiple covers to go on a billboard, only to have them eventually fall off and liter the countryside, you will have the screen which you can automatically update daily and even hourly if need be. Another reason I am a fan of this is because our family business is looking into investing in one. We would be able to post up-to-the-second deals and specials and we believe it would be very beneficiary to have a tool like this. After all, there are laws in place to prohibit flashing lights and words. Also, what’s the difference if there was a regular billboard there, people are still going to look. You can also take the chicken standing out in front of a store waiving a sign as an example. If you are going to outlaw the digital billboards, I also believe the chicken costume should be outlawed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/02/technology/02billboard.html?ref=technology