LA Billboards Off the Charts

'Christmas Quality, Hanukkah Pricing' slogan angers ADL

(NEWSER) - A New York City billboard selling cheap vodka with the slogan "Christmas Quality, Hanukkah Pricing" was taken down after a flood of complaints, including one from the Anti-Defamation League. "In a crude and offensive way of trying to make a point that their vodka is high quality and inexpensive, the billboards evoke a Jewish holiday to imply something that is cheap and of lesser value when compared to the higher value of a Christian holiday," complained the ADL's regional director, saying the ad "reinforces anti-Semitic stereotypes." More»

'Minority Report'-style technology scans passing faces

(NEWSER) - Some Japanese malls are already testing a personalized billboard technology eerily similar to the one seen in Minority Report. The new billboards, developed by Japanese electronic company NEC, scan the faces of passing shoppers, quickly determine their age and gender, and then display demographic-appropriate ads, the Daily Telegraph reports. More»

Industry says they're not 'TV on a stick' but a simple 'slide show'

(NEWSER) - Digital highway billboards can change their display every few seconds, serving multiple advertisers and even aiding law enforcement in finding fugitives and missing children—which is terribly unsafe, critics argue. The “television on a stick” is dangerously distracting to drivers, they say. “The billboard gets your attention whether you want to give it or not,” an advocate working to outlaw them tells the New York Times . More»

'No need for gender testing!' billboard draws complaints

(NEWSER) - A strip club’s seemingly obvious reference to the South African runner revealed to be a hermaphrodite is, predictably, drawing complaints—though the club’s owner says his billboard proclaiming “No need for gender testing!” underneath a busty model isn’t a stab at Caster Semenya. Lolly Jackson says the latest promotional blitz for Teazers (“the teaze without the sleaze”) is in fact calling out the athletics official who knew about Semenya’s condition. More»

(NEWSER) - CBS and Pepsi have teamed up for an experiment in advertising that seems out of the Harry Potter films: talking video advertisements in the pages of Entertainment Weekly. Selected magazine subscribers in New York and LA will receive copies embedded with wafer-thin screens the width of a mobile phone display, which will feature clips from CBS programs and a Pepsi ad. The cost hasn't been disclosed, but one insider tells the Financial Times it should run over $1 million. More»