Billboard
Poop and Boogies | September 26I recently had the pleasure (please note that “pleasure” is meant to be sarcastic) of driving from Orlando, Florida to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and back. Most of the drive was on I-95. I have made this trip many times, but it wasn’t until this last time that I actually took note of the billboards along the highway.
Sure, I am used to the hundreds of “South of the Border” signs that are posted in North Carolina and South Carolina, but on this trip, there was a multitude of other billboards that concerned me.
My son, who is not yet three, is at the age where he starting to learn his letters. It is only a matter of time before he will be able to actually spell. He will eventually be able to sound out the words on these huge advertisements, and it is only a matter of time before he starts asking questions. I shudder at the thought of hearing the following inquiries from my kid.
“Dad, why does that sign say “Topless” three times?”
“Dad, what does “Live Nude Girls” mean?”
“Dad, what is an “adult toy”? and why would “the best girls for miles” have them?”
I like to think that I am not a prude. When I was young, single and had a disposable income these signs were fine with me. And seriously I have no problems with these types of establishments. But now that I am older, married with small children and the only disposable part of my income is for diapers, I question the visibility of these billboards. My questions are numerous.
(1). Do these signs fall under the first amendment? I am against most forms of censorship. I also believe that a parent is 99% responsible for what their child is exposed to. But these larger-than-life signs are out there with no way to turn them off. Granted there are no actual pictures of what they are advertising, but still, (2) should they be out there? The government dictates how tobacco companies can advertise, (3) why not these types of ads?
I am lucky enough to have had seen these signs before my kids can ask the questions. I hope I can prepare some responses before our next journey North. With a little help form the internet of course. What do you think? Please feel free to answer either my Kid’s questions, or mine, or both.
Well, these billboards are not examples of freedom of expression. They’re advertising. And though some use only text, others actually do a fair job of depicting their wares.
I’d just like to have one family road trip without ten-foot-high Xs and neon porn-barns.
(from canada)… I sometime ask myself how much is too much and I definitly think this is bad taste. We don’t have such a problem in Canada , yet we can put what we want on billboards.
In the end, I will live with this as the alternative to free press & democracy is even worse.
I ask myself the SAME thing each time I pass one of these…it’s not that I care the places exist…but should children be exposed to it just because they are in the car going to grandma’s house. That is just not right. I’m not saying they should be removed, but a little more “common-sense” is needed…the word “gentlemens club” is often used in these places, lets put that on the sign…nobody has to be REMINDED what is IN the establishments….our imaginations do that for us…
- Jon
- Daddy Detective
- www.daddydetective.com
Wow. This is a tough question because I am in the creative world as a designer. No, I don’t design these ads, btw.
Yes, all establishments should be able to advertise. No, I don’t think the way THESE establishments advertise is good advertising. But is it effective? Hell yeah. And that’s the problem.
But once you step into dictating HOW these clubs advertise you might be opening Pandora’s box, so to speak. It might be tipping toward immoral but it’s legal and it won’t kill you. Tobacco has been proven to kill you. Big difference to me.
So I guess I am with the minority that doesn’t like them, but am not sure how to make them go-away realistically. I would probably use it as an opportunity to explain to my kid that some girls and boys dance in their swimsuit for money. And no, they are NOT allowed to do that when they grow up.
On my drive to work, I pass several billboards for Las Vegas tourism, including one that says “I JOINED A THREESOME” in huge letters and then in miniscule type says “golf can be your excuse.” There are tons of these double entendre style signs all over town, and while I think they’re witty and funny, they’re much more appropriate to put in a magazine targeted towards adults, not on a 20 foot billboard right down the street from an elementary school.
I just read a great book called “Consuming Kids” that talks about how advertising and marketing to kids has gotten out of control and even dangerous to their health and well being. This example of where advertising isn’t neccesarily directed at kids but is right out in the open and can be pretty inappropriate is a pretty grey area, and I’m not sure how I feel about it. Unfortunately, we live within a mile or so of 3 different strip clubs so it’s something I’m gonna have to figure out how to address in the next few years. (And no, I promise I don’t live in the red light district, lol)
I saw this recently:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xMC5f6aeeU
It’s from a group called “Concerned Children’s Advertisors”
http://www.cca-kids.ca
After I picked my jaw up off my chest, I felt such a strange combination of hope for our society, and elation that maybe it really ISN’T all just about money for everybody, and frustration that something like this hasn’t been done in a much broader sense before now.
OK, there was a big blow up about the local strip club up here in Montana. They put up a sign on the Interstate that said “This ain’t no pettin zoo.”
Bad English aside, the ad had a cartoon girl on it wearing about what cow chicks around here wear for a night on the town, silly short cutoffs, button up shirt tied off at the waist, and a cowboy hat.
LOTS of people had a fit. Eventually the sign was defaced with some white paint splashed up on it.
Now I’ve lived here all my life, I’d seen a sign (not this one) at least once a week from age 5 on. After I’d turned 21, I ended up at this establishment, silly drunk. It came as a complete suprise to me what I found inside. I’d always known it was a bar, I’d never really paid attention to what kind of bar.
Don’t let your new found parent insticts over ride your common sense.
Hey, You were in my neck of the woods, the I95 coridor through NC. Yeah those places are great! (sarcasm) And SOuth of the Border is a real Gem too… although my kids do love sitting on the dumb animals
Two words: Tipper Gore
Not much for me to add here that Daddy Detective and Brice (as well as others) didn’t cover.
There was a big ruckus here in NJ a few years back about a similar billboard that was posted a couple of blocks away from an elementary school (For the record, I like somebody’s idea that I once read that they should expand school “safety zones” like “drug free zones” and “Predator free zones” to include “ad free zones”). Parents were all up in arms about their children seeing this billboard (text only), and what “ideas” they may get. The lease expired before anything was actually done (they later barred all “adult” advertising around schools). But a local paper later went and asked I forget how many students remembered what was on that billboard before the new advertiser. Not one student quizzed was able to answer it.
I really don’t like it any more than you do. But suggesting legislation isn’t the answer (as others pointed out, Tobacco and Alcohol have reasons why they are regulated). Unfortunately I don’t know what the answer is though either.
This is the world we live in. At some point I’ll have to explain that to my son and daughter. If it isn’t a billboard that provokes the discussion it will be something on TV or in a magazine. So while it doesn’t exactly please me that these are out there, it is what it is and I will try and give a thoughtful, yet real answer to their questions.
Man, those signs really bother my now that I’m a Dad. When I was single it was no big deal (Some chick leaning forward or something with the plastic boobs hanging out). Now it’s just offensive.
I don’t think the problem is going to go away anytime soon. I might just tell my kid a lot of perverts live in the area, that’s why we keep driving.
I don’t believe that legislating this will make it go away. They’ll find ways around it. They always do. I personally feel like it’s kind of a great way for me to open a dialouge with my kids about why we think those places are harmful to women and to men, and what our values are.
I felt sick when my son asked me what abortion was. There was a billboard near our house put up by The Right To Life; I forget what the billboard was, but my kid can read and asked me what it was. I would have preferred not to have that discussion with my very bright nine-year-old, but it was in his face, so I had to. (and full disclosure, I’m pro-choice)
We use all kinds of things as “teaching moments.” This is just one more, for me.
Uh, yeah. I live in the L.A. area, and you should see some of the lovely signs in West Hollywood.
I agree it’s not good taste but I don’t think the signs should be prohibited. There are enough things prohibited, especially nowadays with the Patriot Act etc. It might lead to many strange questions from children but it’s nothing dangerous. I see it as education for the real world. I would rather see people focusing on getting rid of guns than signs. Isn’t that kind of funny, we worry about signs for our kids but not that someone can walk into a store and buy 10 guns?
AD
Florida’s I-95 has had those types of signs for 30 years. I grew up driving past them on road trips.
My parents told me they were “dirty” and “for grownups.” That was good enough. The billboards never corrupted me, never made me into a pervert.
Realize that in much of the world they SHOW topless girls on network TV. Somehow civilization survives.
We don’t have a TV, we don’t take our kids (2 and 4 years old) to movies, and there aren’t many billboards around here, so their exposure to advertising is fairly limited. We tell them that certain things they see out in the world–catalogs, billboards, TV’s in restaurants, etc.–are trying to get them to want things and to buy things.
They’re a bit young to talk much about advertising but I still take advantage of those “teaching moments”.
its funny you mention that. i lived in las vegas with my daughter for a short stint, and this stuff is E V E R Y W H E R E. its a part of the culture out there (well that and elvis impersonators). i think that it may not necessarily “BE” part of the first amendment but is a part of American culture. we are focused on image, beauty and sexuality. even if its not on a billboard its on television although perhaps in a “less” obvious way, its still obvious… especially the idea that women are valued for youth, beauty, largeness of breasts, thinness, etc. the effects may be profound, my daughter was a 10 year old about 55 lb, smaller than any other 5th grader in her class and going on “diets” to lose weight.
i think something needs to be done culture-wide, but whats the alternative? be muslim and make everyone where a veil and hate sexuality? there must be some kind of middle ground….