what is a normal billboard?

Movies and TV are reflections of real life (aside from fantasy or science fiction, of course). Actors are paid to act like real people. Locations are scouted to represent a real place. Backgrounds need to look as normal as possible. That includes billboards.

A side effect of being in the out of home industry for so long is that I notice these billboards in movies and shows constantly. And based on what I’ve seen, we’re doing a shit job of making billboards a well-crafted and respectable medium.

However, when Hollywood uses billboards to promote a movie or show in real life, they’re awesome!

These billboards were in the background of a scene in *Mr. Mercedes*. Three people in one photo, giant logo, 16 words, a tagline with a bad line break and quotes, big bar at the bottom for all the contact info, three locations, obnoxious blocky font with outlines, 21 words, four photos, four solds, four price points, extra dollar signs, and a “call now” just in case you don’t know what to do with a phone number. The producers could do anything they wanted with these billboards. They paid for the space. They paid for the production. They paid someone to design these. They *chose* to make these ads *bad*. Because they had to look like billboards in a midsize Ohio town.

This is what they created for Mr. Mercedes. Okay, it’s definitely a lot of words – about 30. But the design itself is some quality craftsmanship, and the three-eyed photo is intriguing.

it’s not their fault

I don’t blame advertisers for their horrible billboards. They’re trying to make their ad budgets work extra hard, but they’re not advertising experts. The fault lies with all of us who claim to love out of home. After a while, this style becomes the norm – what advertisers expect a billboard should look like. We need to prevent billboards from looking like this: