Billboard rant

Outdoor advertising should only contain three things: an illustration/photo, a headline, and a recognizable logo/clever URL. A human being hurtling along at 70mph will not read the rest of the crap crammed onto the board even if offered a cash reward, or forced at gunpoint to make the attempt.

Here's a board we did for KOVR a few years ago to promote the news moving to 10pm, followed by David Letterman at 11. Simple.

On Biz 80 near Cal Expo, I was able to decipher a billboard logo that had baffled me so many times before: D.R.Horton. Barely readable in print, at a distance it looks like a barcode. Fortunately, I was only 50 yards from the board, and at a standstill in a traffic jam.

Until recently there was a public service billboard on Highway 50 between Sunrise and Hazel with the photo of a child... and a boatload of unreadable text, an unreadable URL and (I'm pretty sure) a recipe for crème brulée.

If a driver has to spend more than three seconds to comprehend your message, it's time to rethink the creative strategy.