Zeitgeist
| Sunday, 01 February 2009 10:58 |
Signs of the timesIf we look to the US billboard advertising is a touchy subject. Is the UK going the same way?Billboards’ very strength – their sheer visibility – may be their weakness. They have long attracted the ire of grumpy residents (who fear these signs let the neighbourhood down), professional busybodies, environmental campaigners and politicians looking for an easy target.  Poster billboards are one thing. Illuminated, digital billboards – protesters across the US insist – are quite another. In a frugal, recessionary, environmentally conscious America, digital billboards can seem gaudy and extravagant. In part, this reaction is prompted by fears of a digital billboard epidemic, as if the whole USA could become as flashily multicoloured as Liberace’s suits – even though The Outdoor Advertising Association of America points out that digital sites only account for a tiny minority (0.3%) of America’s billboards.The Los Angeles council has been trying to ban new billboards off and on since 2002. Battle has now recommenced with the council ordering billboard companies to stump up for an inventory of sites – there are probably over 11,000 in LA and its environs – and declaring a three-month moratorium on new billboards. Despite the moratorium, three full, double-sized billboards were erected over a weekend without, it seems, the requisite permit and inspection. As inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel cake, as LA’s finest chronicler Raymond Chandler might have said, these billboards perpetuate the stereotype that billboard owners are all selfish mavericks. Such stunts fuel hardline anti-billboard campaigners. Billboards have been completely banned in four states – Alaska, Hawaii, Maine and Vermont – while Oregon and Rhode Island have banned new billboards, as have Houston, San Diego and San Francisco (although its ban is being challenged). Meanwhile in Brazil, Sao Paolo outlawed all billboards in 2007. Advertisers fought the law fiercely – roughly £60m a year is spent on outdoor advertising in Brazil – but, defeated, have now turned to online advertising and free papers. And that is the worry. Brazil’s public sector is widely regarded as one of the world’s most innovative. If the Sao Paolo experiment catches on – and LA finally patches together a ban on new billboards that will stand up in court – the momentum will be with the banners. This could even affect the UK where billboards are regulated as part of town planning. The industry can still act to help itself. Indeed, it already is. Even the hated digital billboards have been used to deliver public safety announcements, helping reroute traffic after a bridge collapsed in Minnesota in 2007. In part, the debate is all about perceptions. The contention that billboards distract drivers and cause accidents remain unproven. But glaring, electronic billboards have renewed that concern. And the more they glare, the more they spark fears about their environmental impact. Barco has recognised this launching, something it called the “world’s first ‘green’ digital billboard” last April. To hardline eco-warriors, a ‘green digital billboard’ is almost as much of a contradiction as an ‘environmentally friendly hand grenade’. But Barco’s initiative is a start. It might be time for a bigger shift. Every illegal billboard is visible proof – to critics – that the industry can’t police itself. And the industry’s usual approach to such bans – seeking to overturn them in court – isn’t subtle. In San Francisco, where advertisers are challenging the ban on new billboards, the industry is effectively seen as taking on a law that was backed by 79 percent of those who voted. Hardly great PR is it? Billboard owners need to mount a comprehensive program to win the hearts and minds of consumers. Legal vigilance can form a part of that but enlightened self-interest dictates that the industry needs to be seen to regulate itself, to engage in debate with authorities outside a courtroom and to make its case on the efficacy of the medium and the real carbon footprint of old style billboards and digital ones. Otherwise the Sao Paolo option will become ever more popular, to the detriment of owners and wide format printers. And the industry may end up wondering ruefully, as the humorist Will Rogers once put it, “If stupidity got us into this mess, why can’t it get us out of it?” 
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