I couldn't wait to write about the old billboards dotting our interstate highways but once I sat down to do it, I wasn't sure what to say. So I did what I always do when I'm unsure... I started researching their history. I am a nostalgic soul. I love to think about traveling the interstate highway system when it was innovative and new, reading the billboard ads for upcoming rest stops and travel centers...Dairy Queens.
Turns out billboards were conceived long before the automobile and highways came along, around 1830 in fact. They were basically large posters hung outside businesses to attract passers by. Barnum and Bailey's circus was advertised on early billboards.
Other early billboards enticed travelers to stay in local hotels, eat in local restaurants, shop local stores.
Then came the automobile and the billboard business took off, even more so with the advent of the interstate highway system. I don't think I need to explain further.
These days, seems like, just between Moriarty and Edgewood, there are more billboards with faded phone numbers, advertising nothing, than there are ones that are current. Is the billboard business dead?
No, it is not. It's evolving, changing with the times. We see electronic billboards now, opening up doors to all sorts of advertising possibilities.
The other day I saw a semi truck with a working electronic billboard on its flatbed trailer, advertising a nearby business. I imagine the truck just drove back and forth along the interstate, with cars passing it, their passengers wondering, what the hell...
Who knows? Maybe this is a new chapter for outdoor advertising that I'll be blogging about in the future. Until next time, peace.
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