Читать книгу Secrets of Advertising to Gen Y Consumers - Aiden Livingston - Страница 6

The oldest of the advertising techniques is billboard advertising. In fact, as early as in Egyptian times merchants used signs to try and draw more customers to their business; though the current form of billboard advertising we all think of when we consider the concept of outdoor advertising is pretty far removed from hanging a sheet of papyrus paper on a wall announcing mummification services. Therefore, it is safe to say the actual practice of billboard advertising used today was developed much later.

In the early part of the twentieth century, the first freeway billboard ads began to appear. Billboard ads were quite popular at the time because most products were advertised and sold on a local level. It made sense to put a giant billboard alongside the main freeway most of your local consumers used to get home. The practice worked so well the Feds had to step in and regulate it.

I, for one, would be excited to use the mile-long billboards referenced in Ray Bradbury’s futuristic tale Fahrenheit 451. But of course “The Man” had to step in and ruin our good time by passing the 1965 Highway Beautification Act, which strictly regulated the size and number of billboards that could be used. This was great news for those who owned billboards because rates went through the roof, and even today billboards are still predominantly only used by huge conglomerates. Therefore, billboards are well out of the budget of most small- and mid-sized companies.