You may think outdoor advertising signs are very outdated, however, with less competition it can be an advantage for any smart company. With many companies moving towards cheaper alternatives such as the internet to advertise their services and products, outdoor advertising has not been as common. This means, individuals can really capture a wider audience offline rather than online.

It is hoped that a digital outdoor advertising sign roll out in the city of Abbotsford, BC will be a money maker for the Canadian city, which has signed a 20 year deal with Pattison Outdoor Advertising to to cover all the installation costs for a large digital sign on Salton Rd. The sign will be next to Highway 1 and will be used to promote the Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Centre along with a variety of private businesses and community functions.

The city estimates that the sign could generate more than $10 million in additional tax revenues over the 20 year life of the contract which gives Pattison exclusive rights to market advertising on digital signs in the city. The sign will measure 14 x 48 feet and will be the first in a series of three to be built in Abbots ford.

Driving down the highway the other day, my friends and I saw some highly recognizable billboards and this got us talking about advertising as part of our cultural landscape. Turns out we all loved, for instance, the iTunes Beatles billboard last year. In fact, I really missed that great black and white portrait of the Fab Four when the campaign was taken down. We also reminisced about billboards that were part of our childhood experiences. The conversation then went to jingles. We had fun singing some out loud, most of us being able to join in to whatever one of us started!…like the Empire Today jingle; that's one we all knew. It's really amazing how effective a good billboard or a good jingle can be, especially when they run so consistently for so long, like the Empire Carpet one, in fact. That's how these elements of advertisement become a part of our cultural landscape. We then got to talking about all the musical talent that goes into crafting jingles…there are composers, vocalists, and musicians creating all those jingles. We'll never know their names, but they've created memorable musical snippets. I wonder if there's any kind of musical library of commercial jingles, that would be an interesting cultural aspect to study, maybe something for a grad student's dissertation!

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