Have you noticed the new digital signs? They have been sprouting like mushrooms up and down our highways. The biggest ones are of course owned by the billboard companies but there are bright ever changing ones in front of car dealers and even some in front of drug stores.
The difference between these electronic marvels and regular old signs is two fold. First of all they can be changed as fast as the owners of the sign want. The messages can be timed for various times of day. If someone wants to sell coffee in the am hours and beer in the pm it’s just a flick of the switch. The second feature of these digital signs is the shout-out loud-oh-my-gosh lookit that brightness of the things. I mean they really pop out at you and you really can’t help but notice them.
That’s a great thing for the advertisers but some states have decided that it’s not such a good thing for your average highly distracted motorist. 12 states have banned them altogether.
Of course some states like Vermont don’t allow any billboards at all. I don’t really know how I feel about digital billboards or even billboards in general. I have used them to advertise some of my radio stations in the past and it’s been a pretty effective way to do that.
But my big problem with the huge bright digital billboard that grabs my eye on the way home every night? The fact that I have to look at the ugly puss of my ex-wife’s divorce lawyer in vivid Technicolor. Every day. It’s enough to see his big mug on regular billboards but this living color thing has got to go.
