Driving to work today I started noticing for the first time the backs of stop signs, speed limit signs and other traffic signs at the side of the road. Which made me wonder why no one has thought to sell that space for advertising. It would be a great revenue stream for municipalities who are always hard up for money. I'm sure the complaints of them being eyesores and distracting to drivers will die down when residents realize that it's keeping their property taxes down, etc. Besides, the signs are so small that complicated distracting ads won't be effective. Simple ads with just logos or single words or pictures of the product will be the standard.
And the municipalities could outsource all the work to marketing companies that specialize in this kind of stuff. All the mayor and city council would have to do is sit back and watch the money roll in. I'm thinging that somebody has to already be doing this. Besides every local rock band with a fresh supply of stickers, I mean.
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Based on the size and position of these signs, I think they'd only be good for targeting walkers.
Since advertising has weaseled its way into everything else, why not have the front of signs sponsored by commerce? Erection and maintainance of the signs could be the responsibility of the sponsors and severe penalties could be imposed for improper standards or maintenance or neglect since safety is involved. That should save municipalities a lot of money and permit much more and better signage.
At first I like the idea. Even so far as to suggest putting the ads on the road its self. I've started to notice that more and more of the freeway signs are being painted on the freeway its self. So why not sell space for advertising. There is lots of road out there. I'm not so sure the complaints would go down because when I think about the distraction this would cause while driving, I fear the amount of accidents would go up.
Just one lawsuit against the city for contributing to an accident through intentional advertising near a dangerous situation, and the city will lose any money it made and then some.