I’ve lived in a few places in this journey we call life. And, one thing I never thought I’d ever spend time thinking about was a billboard. In a non-digital age, billboards were an important form of advertising. Rarely were they creative. Most often they were simply an extension of a magazine, newspaper, ad campaign made by a big advertising company at the behest of some faceless mega corporation. Lot’s of smoke more Marlboro or drink more Budweiser. Although you saw them, you rarely paid attention except to the clever campaigns that took the time to post something visually striking or copy to make you laugh.
Where I live now, there are few billboards and the ones that remain are blank and rusting. It’s a strange idea to consider that local businesses have nothing to advertise, no new products, no shiny logos, no beautiful photos of customers enjoying their products/services. This has led me to wonder does no one have anything to say? Are billboards so terribly expensive? What does this mean that no one seems to want to boldly post something, anything?
I don’t have those answers. But, I can say that maybe our lives can sometimes parallel a billboard. If we are a billboard, what do we have to say? Do we leave it empty? Do we post things on it we don’t really believe in? Is it inexpensive to distract us and post up other people’s images/ideas on our billboards? Well, here is the beginning of my billboard, a place I aim to populate with people, places, things, and businesses that I find interesting. I hope you’ll stop by occasionally to post your thoughts and reactions. Here’s to new beginnings.
