You ain’t seen everything from 11 feet up—yet
By Advance Business Capital

Back in the day, my pal Sam had it all figured out. When he graduated, he was going to be a long-haul trucker. This puzzled me; Sam was a small guy majoring in philosophy.  "Don't you get it?" he said. "Days on end where nothing will bother me. I'll just drive and think."

I don't know if Sam ever found a sanctuary on the road, but you can bet his concentration would be shattered these days. Back then, he would've had a CB radio. He might still, along with a GPS device and a laptop computer. And even if he turned off his smart phone (trust me, Sam would have a smart phone), he couldn't escape the latest roadside distraction – the digital billboard.

In-Your-Face, 24/7 
Love 'em or hate 'em, these are the signs you can't ignore. They glow, they beckon, they mesmerize you with images that change every six to eight seconds. Advertisers love digital billboards (DBBs) for being attention-grabbing and flexible. The same DBB can flash a restaurant’s breakfast deals in the morning and burgers at noon – along with additional ads from five more businesses. No wonder the giant media companies love these babies.

They aren't cheap.  A traditional billboard costs $5,000 to $50,000. The digital version is $250,000 to $300,000. Both types rent for about the same, $1,000 to $5,000 per month, depending on location and audience. Right now, only about 2,000 of the 450,000 billboards in the U.S. are digitized, but as with everything else electronic, the costs of DBBs are dropping.

A lot of people hate DBBs for being in-your-face eyesores.  And once in a while they successfully fight city hall (well, ok, fight the Los Angeles Planning Commission) to remove DBBs from locations zoned historic or scenic.

From Blinking Light to Global Blight 
But we’re not just talking highway beautification here. These signs are intrusive, distracting and likely dangerous. The outdoor advertising industry disagrees, and points to a 2007 Virginia Tech study that found DBBs  no more distracting than regular signs. That study, however, was financed by the billboard industry and its methodology has been discredited. A study currently underway by the Federal Highway Administration is hoped to provide more definite results this summer. 

 Meanwhile, Maine, Montana and Vermont have already banned DBBs, and the Michigan legislature is considering a two-year moratorium on new ones. Nationally, more than a dozen cities have bans, including Dallas, Denver, Houston, San Francisco, and Knoxville, Tennessee.

Like discarded plastic bags, those blinkety-blink signs have become a global blight. As far away as the United Arab Emirates, drivers blame them for causing wrecks. Norm Labbe, a defensive driver teacher in Abu Dhabi, sounds just like the guy who taught Sam and me to drive. "The billboards have to be distracting to be effective, and that makes them dangerous," says Labbe. "It takes approximately one and a half to two seconds for you to react properly and apply your brakes and come to a stop. A lot can happen in two seconds."

Hey, John Anderson! 
And just like your phone, the DBB concept is going mobile. A company called Rear Window Media can turn your SUV or pickup truck into a traveling digital distraction. Their slogan is "reinventing the information highway" and, boy, they're not kidding. Using GPS and digital technology, they can turn rear windows into digital billboards, which can be controlled and constantly updated from a distance. Contemplate that the next time you're stuck in traffic.

Even creepier, remember that scene in Minority Report where Tom Cruise is walking through a mall full of signs calling to him by name? In Japan, something close to that is already up and running. Billboards developed by the NEC Corporation combine a small camera, a flat-panel monitor and facial recognition software. As you walk by, the ghost in the sign identifies your gender, pegs your age to within 10 years, and then flashes advertising customized to your niche. Or to what advertisers believe your niche is. 

Digital You, in-Your-Face 
Does that stir your privacy concerns? Not to worry. NEC vice president Takeshi Yamamoto recently assured ABC News that "the technology was developed to be totally anonymous" and "does not capture or store any footage or information as it pertains to a specific individual." Hmmmm.

Granted, at times DBBs can serve a socially useful purpose. Think of the stodgy, official ones used for Amber Alerts and emergency updates. But what do you think of this? From Amsterdam, it’s what the Dutch call an "augmented reality billboard." Is it useful, creepy or a little of both? Click here and decide for yourself.

This story was drawn from New York Times, Detroit News and The National.

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