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Who would finance advertising for a Mercedes Benz to farmers plying the roads at 12 MPH on their John Deere tractors in Iowa? The billboards you see today are there because they are in locations that are zoned for business. You can't blight what is already tainted. To question the existence of billboards is to question all outside advertising. That is not to say that the role of the billboard hasn't changed. This form of advertising has an inherent flaw. It's focus is too broad. What aesthetics couldn't accomplish, the tone of business has. It certainly isn't in the best interest of any business to offend anyone. Today's billboard has grown up from the paper pasted slab to a multimedia event. Some modern billboards are not paper at all. Electronic's and LED's have changed the face of the single picture billboard to a changing array of messages. Mobiltrak, a California company is at the leading edge. A monitor can 'read' what radio stations a group of cars are listening to. This information can then be fed back into a computer and the billboards further along the road can be adjusted to focus to that group. For example if 14 out of 25 cars are listening to a country station, casinos might be advertised. If a block of cars are listening to NPR the billboards can be changed to advertise a gourmet market or a top end automobile. Intrusion of privacy you say. Not really because the individual is still anonymous. We have all come to accept advertising as a part of life. You simply can ignore it to avoid it. Not good enough? There are four states that have banned billboards all together. Maine, Vermont, Alaska and Hawaii. Every once in a while there is the oddity that really gets our attention. Like the guy who rents a billboard to propose to his girlfriend. Sort of, almost, makes billboards endearing.
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