Are there any good reasons *not* to ban billboards?

[hbelkins]

The First Amendment and private property rights are the two best reasons I can think of.

[cl94]

This would be why they aren't banned.

[SkyPesos]

The only billboards I've ever found to be useful are the ones telling you about services (food, fuel, etc.) at an exit/junction somewhere down the road. Outside of that, they're garbage.

This. I could care less about law firm advertisements, or that there's a Buc-ees 552 miles down the road.

[In_Correct]

• They are not funded by your Taxes.
• They are not Gantry Signs. They are not above you. They are way over there.
• They are not in your "Back Yard".
• Shame on you for banning Beautiful Neon Signs. And now they Cancel Billboards?!
• Web Sites Are Ugly. Smart Phones Are Ugly. JQUERY Is Ugly. Paywall Is Ugly. Cheap Commercials Are Ugly. Canceling Billboards does not make it go away.
• These are valid reasons to keep Billboards. However, my reasons are not "Stylish". They are not "Trending". Button Copy is not either. That does not make it wrong.

[SEWIGuy]

The First Amendment and private property rights are the two best reasons I can think of.

Yet they are regulated in many states.

[Ned Weasel]

I've done art, and I've done advertising.

Advertising isn't art.

https://www.artsy.net/artist-series/andy-warhol-advertisements

[Ted$8roadFan]

An alternative to billboards are those signs on highways saying which services are available at the next exit, and then the distances to those establish,ents. More states could (and should) utilize them. That said, as previously mentioned, I have no issue with billboards advertising food/fuel/services that may be a bit further away.

[kernals12]

The First Amendment and private property rights are the two best reasons I can think of.

If you put a giant inflatable phallus in your front yard, it would not be long before a nice police officer showed up with a cease-and-desist order

[hotdogPi]

Billboard ideas:

• The lawyers on the next billboard will take 80% of what you receive, even if you do win
• Drink and drive – you're more likely to survive than the passenger next to you
• Speed limit 55 ahead – strictly enforced in Example County, in 6 miles
• Checkerboard perfectly reflective mirror and see-through, meant to distract

[Max Rockatansky]

The First Amendment and private property rights are the two best reasons I can think of.

If you put a giant inflatable phallus in your front yard, it would not be long before a nice police officer showed up with a cease-and-desist order

Is someone putting a picture of a giant dong up on billboard somewhere?

[Rothman]

The First Amendment and private property rights are the two best reasons I can think of.

If you put a giant inflatable phallus in your front yard, it would not be long before a nice police officer showed up with a cease-and-desist order

Is someone putting a picture of a giant dong up on billboard somewhere?

See Cobra Kai.

[Max Rockatansky]

The First Amendment and private property rights are the two best reasons I can think of.

If you put a giant inflatable phallus in your front yard, it would not be long before a nice police officer showed up with a cease-and-desist order

Is someone putting a picture of a giant dong up on billboard somewhere?

See Cobra Kai.

I thought that might be a Cobra Kai reference somehow, but I wasn't sure.

[jeffandnicole]

Advertising takes different forms to get the message across, much of it subconsciously. You may not care about certain billboard advertisements...but you remembered the ads. You may not care about life insurance at that very moment, or erectile dysfunction treatments, but the thought of those products are now in your brain if you do. A breakfast billboard at 1pm won't produce a sale of that item that day, but the brand is in your mind for your next meal.

Art is very subjective - no doubt many people have been to certain art museums, but not *every* art museum. Most companies use different ads to appeal to different people.

Whenever I see a study from a safety institute, it might as well be trashed. They clearly will be pushing an agenda. Even more so when they compare one country to another random country. There's 200 someodd countries.  Why compare one to another in a different part of the world, rather than, say, a country with a common border?

An alternative to billboards are those signs on highways saying which services are available at the next exit, and then the distances to those establish,ents. More states could (and should) utilize them.

Doesn't nearly every state use these already? They're also not free - companies pay to get their logo on the sign. It's often one of the few transportation items that actually results in revenue and profit to a transportation department.

[kernals12]

Outdoor advertising is just 2.5% of all ad spending

https://www.scenic.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/scenic20america20billboard20fact20sheet1.pdf

[Ted$8roadFan]

Advertising takes different forms to get the message across, much of it subconsciously. You may not care about certain billboard advertisements...but you remembered the ads. You may not care about life insurance at that very moment, or erectile dysfunction treatments, but the thought of those products are now in your brain if you do. A breakfast billboard at 1pm won't produce a sale of that item that day, but the brand is in your mind for your next meal.

Art is very subjective - no doubt many people have been to certain art museums, but not *every* art museum. Most companies use different ads to appeal to different people.

Whenever I see a study from a safety institute, it might as well be trashed. They clearly will be pushing an agenda. Even more so when they compare one country to another random country. There's 200 someodd countries.  Why compare one to another in a different part of the world, rather than, say, a country with a common border?

An alternative to billboards are those signs on highways saying which services are available at the next exit, and then the distances to those establish,ents. More states could (and should) utilize them.

Doesn't nearly every state use these already? They're also not free - companies pay to get their logo on the sign. It's often one of the few transportation items that actually results in revenue and profit to a transportation department.

Not always, and not on every highway. Some have them, but with no listings. Some have listings that need to be updated.

[J N Winkler]

I think advertising control on Interstates (conceptually a bit broader than just a billboard ban) has been a success.  I actually support removing all grandfathered billboards on Interstates and extending the same form of control to all freeways.  It is on surface roads where matters become more complex.  Ghost signs are increasingly deemed worthy of historic preservation, and some advertising displays have become regarded as cultural fixtures (e.g., the billboards, painted barn roofs, etc. on US 66 pointing the way to Meramec Caverns in Missouri).

In regard to the First Amendment and private property rights, it is well-established law that nuisances--including billboards--are subject to legal control.

Long before we worry about anything fixed and off the road, I want to regulate those horribly bright electronic billboard type ads you sometimes see on box trucks. I hate those with a burning passion. Not only are they super annoying and distracting, but they blind everyone else on the road, especially if it's foggy out.

I would ban them outright.  I also support stringent regulations on fixed digital billboards where they are permitted, which would not be on freeways.

[jeffandnicole]

...They're also not free - companies pay to get their logo on the sign. It's often one of the few transportation items that actually results in revenue and profit to a transportation department.

Not always, and not on every highway. Some have them, but with no listings. Some have listings that need to be updated.

Repeating my above statement...They're not free,  and DOT is not responsible for listing all restaurants. It is a voluntary program for restaurants to buy space on the sign.

What states don't use the signage?

[Scott5114]

I've done art, and I've done advertising.

Advertising isn't art.

https://www.artsy.net/artist-series/andy-warhol-advertisements

That's art, not advertising. Warhol made some neat looking stuff, but I don't think any of it actually sold anything.

Look, if art and advertising are the same thing, why is it that I'm competent enough at art to get paid a reasonable sum to do it, but I'm so abysmal at advertising that I've lost vast sums of money doing it?

Here are the differences between the two, that I've learned from experience:

Art
- A form of expression. One normally creates art for the sake of creating art.
- You cannot succeed or fail at art, as it is subjective. Even if a piece has severe technical flaws someone may love it all the same.
- Art is generally open to interpretation. The artist may intend meaning X but the audience perceives meaning Y. This is generally considered to be okay or even desirable. In fact, the most badly-received art is when it overtly tries to get you to feel a certain way but can't actually pull it off (e.g. a stand-up comedian who isn't funny, a tearjerker movie that isn't actually sad).

Advertising
- A means to an end. That is, advertising is created for one purpose only–to increase income of the organization creating it.
- You sure as hell can fail at advertising. If your ad spend exceeds the increase in sales, the advertising campaign has objectively failed.
- Advertising is generally shooting for the narrowest interpretation possible. At a base level, if you intend to communicate "2 for $5" and the customer interprets "5 for $2" you have a problem. Even outside of the specific case like that, most of advertising is actually applied psychology. You want to get the customer feeling nostalgic so they buy your old-style toaster, you want them to feel anxious about their family's safety so they buy an alarm system, you want them to feel like they'll make a difference in the world if they buy your shoes made from recycled ocean plastic.

Now, some elements of an advertisement can be art. I don't think it would be correct to say that the logo design work of Paul Rand isn't art. But the sum of what ends up on a billboard? Very distinct from art.

[Ted$8roadFan]

...They're also not free - companies pay to get their logo on the sign. It's often one of the few transportation items that actually results in revenue and profit to a transportation department.

Not always, and not on every highway. Some have them, but with no listings. Some have listings that need to be updated.

Repeating my above statement...They're not free,  and DOT is not responsible for listing all restaurants. It is a voluntary program for restaurants to buy space on the sign.

What states don't use the signage?

So if businesses really want to get noticed, they either lease the space on the signs from the DOT or pay for billboards.

[ethanhopkin14]

Billboards provide useful and needed information to the traveling public.

This series of billboards were the first thing that came to mind when opening this thread. 

[Scott5114]

This series of billboards were the first thing that came to mind when opening this thread. 

When I got home from Louisiana, not knowing any better as an out-of-state visitor, I had to Google the guy out of sheer intellectual curiosity to see what business he was even in. I won't spoil it for anyone else (our facetious running theory, based on the oddly non-specific slogans used, was that he was a sex worker), but it's certainly not something where you would make a decision on the basis of sheer impulse while on the road.

[oscar]

I won't spoil it for anyone else (our facetious running theory, based on the oddly non-specific slogans used, was that he was a sex worker), but it's certainly not something where you would make a decision on the basis of sheer impulse while on the road.

^ True, but it does make his name familiar. That gives him a leg up on his competitors (or cut into their edge from their own advertising), should you ever need services of the kind he offers.

People in his profession need to be careful about what they promise in their ads, thus his minimal promise that his office will at least return your phone calls. (But there's no phone number on the billboard, not even an easy-to-remember toll-free number. Maybe on one of his other billboards.)

[J N Winkler]

When I got home from Louisiana, not knowing any better as an out-of-state visitor, I had to Google the guy out of sheer intellectual curiosity to see what business he was even in. I won't spoil it for anyone else (our facetious running theory, based on the oddly non-specific slogans used, was that he was a sex worker), but it's certainly not something where you would make a decision on the basis of sheer impulse while on the road.

I Googled him and found him to be in precisely the profession, but not the subspecialty of it, that I was expecting.  And yes, there's definitely a Magic Mike or American Gigolo vibe about that shot.

[Scott5114]

^ True, but it does make his name familiar. That gives him a leg up on his competitors (or cut into their edge from their own advertising), should you ever need services of the kind he offers.

People in his profession need to be careful about what they promise in their ads, thus his minimal promise that his office will at least return your phone calls. (But there's no phone number on the billboard, not even an easy-to-remember toll-free number. Maybe on one of his other billboards.)

You make a good point about his reasons for the vagueness of his billboards. I had assumed that Mr. Bart was banking on people doing what I did (looking him up to satisfy their curiosity as to his profession). I had never considered that Mr. Bart was in a profession where he could give his all to the client, yet still come up short through no fault of his own, ultimately leaving the client unsatisfied at the end of the day.

Effectiveness of his chosen marketing strategy aside, though, his omnipresence on Louisiana billboards somewhat undermines the argument that billboards are an essential service to travelers.

[formulanone]

I won't spoil it for anyone else (our facetious running theory, based on the oddly non-specific slogans used, was that he was a sex worker), but it's certainly not something where you would make a decision on the basis of sheer impulse while on the road.

^ True, but it does make his name familiar. That gives him a leg up on his competitors (or cut into their edge from their own advertising), should you ever need services of the kind he offers.

People in his profession need to be careful about what they promise in their ads, thus his minimal promise that his office will at least return your phone calls. (But there's no phone number on the billboard, not even an easy-to-remember toll-free number. Maybe on one of his other billboards.)

Furthermore, sometimes they borrow the fame of one attorney to pitch for a more local law firm. Throughout Alabama, the likeness of Alexander Shunnarah can be found on every fourth billboard, where there's some small print explaining which firm might pick up the phone call or provide representation.

After the beer, law firm, and strip clubs are accounted for, it's probably insurance, banks, HVAC repair, dealerships, gas stations, restaurants, and hotels rounding out the top ten.