Under Prop D, signs ranging from digital billboards, like the one seen heading into Oakland from the Bay Bridge, to "dancing inflatable men" would be allowed along Market from Fifth to Seventh streets, according to the Planning Department.
Fuck billboards.
Tags: billboard, copyright, corporations, mpegs, sf, spam, sprawl
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27 Responses:
"dancing inflatable men", eh?
I assume that translates to wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man.
I saw those for sale in the SkyMall catalog the other day. I thought about buying one for you but it was like $500 and I don't have that kind of cash money to spend on a joke.
If it's $500 in Skymall, it's probably $200 somewhere normal.
Here in New York, we have bright animated LED-screen ads mounted on the SIDES OF BUSES. Like, brighter than streetlights. They are HORRIBLE.
I just saw my first one of those in Chicago yesterday. I thought it was a major accident with a bunch of police cars and ambulances at first, but no, just a fucking billboard.
They're in Vancouver too, and just as bizarre.
I saw a Max Headroom billboard in there. Is there a way to re-write the proposition so only billboards with Matt Freuer characters will be allowed?
I will vote against any proposition that allows Lawnmower Man 2 billboards.
Welcome to
San FranciscoVegas!Ugh. I recently moved to Vermont, which is one of a handful of states that completely ban billboards. Merchants are allowed to have small text-only signs near their freeway exits, and that's it. It's WONDERFUL. And I'm so bummed to hear it's only getting worse in SF. They're truly an eyesore.
Oh man, how much do I hate that video billboard you seen when you going to Oakland?! That thing is so ridiculously distracting. It's even worse from the other side, too. I have a friend who lived in the Berkeley hills and their view of the bay is marred pretty significantly by that fugly bright-ass billboard.
The other one that drives me nuts is the Coca Cola sign you see from the Bay Bridge coming into the city. It could be kind of okay in a nostalgic sort of way if half the bulbs weren't burned out. That thing is seriously janky looking and it's one of the first things visitors from the East (read: THE REST OF THE COUNTRY) see as they enter the city.
You know, I have some love for that Coke sign precisely because it is so old and janky. I have this fantasy where there's only one guy left in the world who knows how to fix the mechanical relays that drive the logic on that thing, and it's flaky so often because he's 95 and has trouble getting up and down the ladder.
That's how it is in my head, anyway.
Hah! That actually makes it way better. I'll have to start imagining that every time I see it on my way home from work.
There's a massive animated bubblegum billboard over one of the highways near here, and it's so bright it lights up the streets for about half a mile around. When they first put it in and I was driving towards it for the first time, I thought the sun hadn't gone down all the way yet - at midnight.
Actually, it's over the Metra/UP tracks. (If you're talking about the one near the Clybourn stop)
However, I don't know about you, but I still miss the Magikist billboard...
Yeah, you're right. I forgot it was over to the east a bit so you're staring right at the stupid thing before the highway bends south into the loop.
And I don't remember the Magikist one, but I've only been here a couple years.
Giant red lips. :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MagikistlipsKennedy.jpg
That photo is, sadly, from when the sign had seen better days. (There were 3 different ones but I only ever saw the one on the Kennedy). I do remember when the sing was working. It always made the drive more interesting.
er, sign, not sing. :)
Good luck with that. Seriously. Billboards are absolute fucking eyesores perpetrated by big media companies with some of the deepest pockets and... oh shit, I think I work for one of those now.
Start a new life in the off-world colonies!
OK, they can have their billboards if I get my fucking flying car.
Need for "motor" sounds on electric cars > custom motor sounds > ring tones for your car > sponsored motor sounds > cacophony of Dopplered product promotions
This is utterly horrible and hence inevitable.
But that'll also allow us to make our cars sound like they're from the Jetsons.
BUT HOW ELSE CAN WE POSSIBLY REVITALIZE MARKET STREET?
Today's project: Augumented-reality Adblock