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June 19, 2006 12:03 AM
Broken: Speedway tower ad
A reader sends in a picture taken in Joilet, Illinois:
I am certain that there is supposed to be a visible ad on the garbled screen of this speedway tower.
Second!
Looks like someone didn't tell the programmer that the ad is supposed to be shown to the outside world, not to the inside of the tower.
Third, I love RSS.
Wow, It looks like a bird landed inside and made a new connection to a pixels that don't exist.
Whatever it is it's trademarked. If you look closely you can see the TM. I hope they get a refund on their advertising time. Most certainly broken.
Lots of billboard signs do this, rotate to display 2 or 3 different messages. Anyone could have snapped this picture whilst the sign was in mid-change. So, this is possibly not broken.
Baba I agree completely. This billboard is not an electronic display. Its a billboard made of several panels that rotate to display different ads. This picture as mentioned by Baba can be easily taken in mid-transition. Sorry but I have to go with not broken
If the ad was working I doubt someone would have sent it in. I'm guessing either it got stuck halfway, or all the slots are out of sync.
"Baba I agree completely. This billboard is not an electronic display. Its a billboard made of several panels that rotate to display different ads. This picture as mentioned by Baba can be easily taken in mid-transition. Sorry but I have to go with not broken"
Yeah.. that is a pretty good point that was made, I'm still going for broken, though. Likely it's a burned out motor or the sign got jammed.
is it broken, or has it been fixed, to transform a peice of dull advertising into an interesting and thought provoking display.
Discus: does this make it art?
It doesn't look like it's "in transition" to me, as all the slats typically turn at the same time.
However, I'd venture that it's likely that the business being advertised decided not to renew its contract, and no one else has (yet) decided to advertise in that spot. Since the owner of the billboard doesn't want to give away free advertising, they garbled the sign.
Billboard companies do that all the time here in Nevada (where the orange cone is the state flower and the billboard is the state bird).
Not Broken!
This is a billboard from Microsoft's new advertising campaign. Rather than hire an ad agency, they decided to let their programmers come up with a campaign---this is their first effort.
Quite effectively conveys the essence of Microsoft products, don't you think?
Are you kidding? A broken sign? Damn if I knew that's all it took to get on TIB, I'd take a picture of the dozens of broken signs I see everywhere.
I think I saw a STOP sign with some spray paint on it. Does that count?
"Clearly there is something messed up here because you can see one registered mark is upside down."
This is an interesting point. But there's actually 2 that are upside down (the white on blue one in the upper middle, and the black on yellow in the lower left-ish). Maybe it was part of the design? Either way, this sort of makes for a fun (if broken) "I Spy" game...
I think it's sort-of broken, the registered marks are a good point, but I think it's not REALLY broken!
NOT (really) BROKEN, PEOPLE!!!
When I wnet to England I saw some of these. They aren't great. The motor system is delicate, and the ads (because they're on strips) constantly peel off. Also, it could be out of sync. I say broken because the owner hasn't noticed.
What a good way to collect money.
MANAGER: "Sure, we put your ad up. You never said it couldn't be with 3 other ads."
"However, I'd venture that it's likely that the business being advertised decided not to renew its contract, and no one else has (yet) decided to advertise in that spot. Since the owner of the billboard doesn't want to give away free advertising, they garbled the sign." great point Karen.
Also some business have gotten into the practice of advertising upside-down to draw attention. This habit is not broken, just lame.
broken, but such an add would catch a lot of attention, and leave people puzzled what was about and whose this add might be ... may be it is a marketing trick. but broken for me/
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Long live technology.
Posted by: Edward at June 19, 2006 12:23 AM