AJC > Sandy Springs > Blog > Archives > 2007 > December > 17
Monday, December 17, 2007
Billboards are blight on the metro landscape
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As part of a legal settlement reached with outdoor advertising companies, the powers that be in Fulton County have granted permits for approximately 75 new billboards to go up around the county - 23 right here in Sandy Springs.
The mayor and city council plan to fight this one tooth and nail. We shouldn’t have to clean up anyone else’s mess, and certainly not at the cost of the visual pollution brought about by these monstrosities.
There is nothing good to say about billboards. I have yet to see one that blends into the surrounding landscape, much less improves it. The last thing we need is 23 more butt-ugly steel towers going up around town.
I can’t recall the last time I looked up and thought anything I saw on a billboard was clever, intelligent or well conceived. And I’m not even sure they work in terms of planting the seed for whatever they’re selling.
Indeed, as I sit here I can recall two boards in the city. One is the Georgia Lottery board near Roswell Road and Abernathy. The other is a stone’s throw from Lowe’s, and it used to carry an ad promoting Home Depot. Someone was either very clever or very lucky with that placement.
OK. I’ll admit to recalling one other board near Sandy Springs Plaza, but I only remember that one because it advertised a flower show for more than a year after the event took place. I don’t think that was the result the client was looking for.
But I guess in the interest of fairness I should try and say a few good things about billboards. Here goes:
I can’t remember any study linking billboards to any disease in a lab rat. There may be one; I just can’t recall it.
Billboards cannot be held responsible for what has happened to the Atlanta Falcons this season.
Likewise they have no affect on rising gas prices, the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage industry or any possible hole in the ozone layer.
And while I’m in a magnanimous mood, I will allow one new board. It has to be at the city limits and facing toward Fulton County. And it would simply read: “We won. You lost. Get over it. Have a nice day.”
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