I didn’t attend an advertising school, so I don’t know if they teach the rule about limiting the number of billboards using the word ridiculously to one per square mile. If they don’t, maybe it’s a good time to start.
Quality of construction in this area always puzzled me. Every year we see a local weather-woman imploring us to take cover while wearing a complete football player’s outfit; every year we see photos of damage and destruction; every year someone we know has to replace a roof, a window or a whole house. Yet the houses many of us live in are constructed of plywood, duct tape and termite excrement. I saw my house being built and I don’t hold any illusions about my survival chances in case of a tornado. That’s why I have reservations about sleeping naked during the storm season, you never know where my body may touch down.
With that in mind, I had to take a few pictures of the new apartment building currently being constructed downtown.
We were driving on I-70 when my Mom saw the billboard for the Churchill Memorial in Fulton, MO. I told her what I knew about the “Iron Curtain” speech; the American experience during the Cold War; the radiation drills; famous videos of kids hiding under their desks; even the fallout shelters in Kansas City.
Note: These photos are dated with the year 1936 on the archive pages, but some of them are used in the article “A Great Newspaper Builds a Great Art Museum” published in 1939. I have no way to tell when they were taken.
The ad wizards who thought it was a great idea to put small print on a highway billboard came up with another gem.
Here are my suggestions for the future billboards:
My car kicked your car’s rear end;
My car’s big black tailpipe is longer than your car’s tailpipe;
My car took away your car’s gas money;
My car swallowed a luxury car and now it craps exhausts luxury;
My car voted for McCain;
If you come up with your own winning caption I will throw in up to 700 miles for your choice of a magazine subscription.
Continuing with the subject of advertising if your child is composing/performing a jingle about the hemorrhoid treatment center, you are within your rights to demand back all the money you’ve spent on the music lessons. (the jingle starts on the 20th second of the clip).
