Billboard, billboard. Everywhere a billboard

Inspiration: Anti-vandalism billboard at Hawthorn train station

Created: Tue 15 Oct 2002 17:02

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Sometimes, it's difficult to tell where the world stops and an advertisement begins. If I'm reading a women's magazine (which, admittedly, is usually just one big advertisement anyway), I have to scan carefully for the words "A such-and-such company promotion" to tell whether the page I'm reading is an advertisement or editorial comment.

The latest places that were relatively low in advertisements (in Melbourne), but have now been well and truly infested are the train stations. Over the last month or so, each train station I stop at has acquired clusters of new billboard / poster contraptions, all firmly encased in plastic to protect the company names, skimpy clothed people, and web addresses peeking out from beneath.

The worst of the new batch, in my opinion, are the double-bangers (they've probably got some official name, but this is what I'm going to call them, cos I can't think of a better name). An encasement for a backlit poster that is on a sliding mechanism and rotates every 15 or so seconds, so that two ads can be shown instead of just one.

Someone out there thinks this is ingenious. They're probably patting themselves on the back right now. But I think it is a complete waste of energy; switching from advertisement 1 to advertisement 2 and back again on a continuous loop. It's annoyingly attention-grabbing, because of the movement. The sound that it makes as it rotates invades the air, and jolts me out of my thoughts.

So, out there in the world of train station advertising, I am happy to see one successful (and relatively inoffensive) advertisement. Each morning I check on its progress. It says "If vandalism goes unreported, it gets worse. If you see vandalism in progress, call 000". Thus far (it's been up for about three weeks now), it has not been vandalised. The billboard next to it (for Volkswagen Polo cars) is covered in graffiti, but the vandalism billboard is bare.

So, I guess if we want to stop graffiti from happening, we just have to put these anti-vandalism billboards absolutely everywhere. Sounds like a workable plan.

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