News, Chicago Aldermen Push To Stop Mobile Billboards. (Mark: neighborhood, buying)

[JD59]

"We are trying to become a greener city. We are trying to become a clean city, and these mobile billboards just add to the problems of our environment."

Breitbart.tv » Chicago Aldermen Push To Stop Mobile Billboards

[Drover]

Uh yeah. We live here so we kinda know what goes on here. Thanks anyway?

[j33]

I usually like less interference from our nannylike aldermen rather than more. But mobile billboards are pretty damn silly, I wouldn't mind them going the way of the dodo.

However, I had to give the Florida tourist boards some props for one display they drove around with on Michigan Ave. in February, I didn't know whether to through tomatoes at it, or go book a trip to Florida.

[Chicago60614]

I LOOOOOVE the billboard for the strip club that drives up and down Boystown every weekend.

have they not...over the past year....looked around at the neighborhood they're driving through with the huge naked lady?

[alwaystraveling25]

Originally Posted by Chicago60614

I LOOOOOVE the billboard for the strip club that drives up and down Boystown every weekend.

have they not...over the past year....looked around at the neighborhood they're driving through with the huge naked lady?

My friends and I always crack up about that. They seem to drive up Broadway past Belmont to Charlie's, turn a left, and go right back down Halsted. We think the driver must be gay, since that truck only crusies down Halsted and Broadway. Talk about appealing to the wrong target market!

[Costa Rica Chica]

Good! I always thought those moving billboards were a huge waste of gas.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Costa Rica Chica

Good! I always thought those moving billboards were a huge waste of gas.

Marketing costs money. If a company decides that spending part of their marketing budget on gas provides a satisfactory return on their investment, who are you to say it's a waste?

[eevee]

Originally Posted by Drover

Marketing costs money. If a company decides that spending part of their marketing budget on gas provides a satisfactory return on their investment, who are you to say it's a waste?

well, yeah, I think people understand that a major marketing agency can afford to pay for the gas, that's not the concern. my concern is the overall wasting of gas (it's not like there's an unlimited supply of it!), and the impact these things are having on the environment. there are better ways of advertising, like regular billboards, advertising on city buses or trains, even something like the RedBull car or some other car w/ ads on it would be better because then that vehicle can serve another use

ETA: I haven't seen to many of these things on a day to day basis, so I don't know what type of places or products are being advertised. anyone else know? maybe people should complain to the companies about this form of advertising by protesting or letting the companies know they don't like this form of advertising by speaking w/ their wallets

[Drover]

Again, whether there are "better" ways to advertise is not for you to decide. It is for the people buying the ads to decide. And spare me the "environmental impact" nonsense. There are millions of vehicles driving the area streets, it wouldn't even be possible to measure the impact of a dozen more. Not to mention this is Chicago where the air is nasty, and if those trucks were built relatively recently and they use gas engines (I think they do), chances are the air going out of the tailpipe is cleaner than the air coming in.

[Lookout Kid]

There's a song by the Fiery Furnaces where a billboard truck runs over the foot of an attacker as he walks towards the song's protagonist. They also seem to inevitably show up in movies in the middle of chase scenes, usually resulting in a bad guy plunging head first into the sign portion of the truck. So sometimes these billboard trucks serve a positive purpose! I'd say they are quite valuable as schlocky plot devices in popular fiction!