Romance on Billboards?

By Selena McIntyre

Romance is in the air...literally and our imaginations are running wild. Billboards have been used to get several messages out in the past, but they are currently taking on a whole new approach. One of the latest new trends is romantic billboards. Here are three great stories that express romance on billboards.

Varsha & Rohit

In August of 2003, Varsha Anand was driving home from work thinking of her fiancé, Rohit. A bright yellow billboard caught her attention and made her emotions go wild. The billboard said:

"Dearest Varsha, Just thought I would let you know what I was going to do today! Love, Rohit"

On the other side of the sign was the following:

1. Adore you.
2. Think of you.
3. Think up of cute nickname for you.
4. Bore all of my friends with endless talk about how wonderful you are.
5. Daydream about us being together.
6. Buy groceries (hey, I gotta eat, you know!)"

This was the same message that Rohit had emailed Varsha the previous night. The two were married later that month.

Julie

Our second romantic billboard story takes place when a girl named Julie placed her image on a billboard to help her find a date. However, Julie didn't stop there; she actually waited on top of the billboard and would not come down until she found a date. Julie had three dates on top of the billboard and found a special man to date after she got off of the billboard.

Angel in Red

This last story is a little different than the other two because it lasted for nine weeks and had several different postings. It all started with a simple billboard that said "Angel in Red - Saw you at Garcia's Irish Pub. Love to meet you. - William."

The following week the same billboard was changed to say "Angel in Red - Still waiting. Garcia's Pub. Friday? William." By this time the public was talking about the board and waiting to see what happened between Angel & William.

Then Frankie came into the picture. He posted a message on the billboard telling William that Angel was too good for William. Of course William responded back telling Frankie to meet him at Garcia's on Friday.

This story was gaining extreme amounts of popularity by this time. The ladies really wanted to find out who William was. They continued to call the billboard company with hopes of finding our more about William. Finally after eight weeks, Angel responded by saying "Dear William, I must be crazy. Garcia's Friday 8:30. Angel."

When Friday finally came, Garcia's was extremely crowded with people that wanted to meet the modern day Romeo and Juliet. They were in luck, the couple was their dancing.

What the public did not realize was that this billboard was actually an advertising campaign and "William" and "Angel" were actors.My main points of this story are to show you how one of the latest trends was used in advertising and how effective billboard really are.

Other Romantic Billboards

Billboards have also been used to ask people to marry them, say happy anniversary, and even to announce the birth of a new child. If you look carefully, you will see romance everywhere you go, even twenty feet up in the air on a billboard.

Sources: "Love with an outdoor message" The Hindu, 8/22/03 www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2003082209110200.htm "Would you live on a billboard for a date?" www.dating.about.com/b/a/056002.htm Bose, Pratap "Who reads those billboards anyway?" Outdoor-Today Volume: 2 Issue 4

Selena McIntyre has been a Creative Designer for BPS Outdoor Media since 1999. She has a Marketing Degree and several years of customer service experience. Selena has studied art most of her life and continues to do so now. She designs most of BPS’s billboards and has written several articles about the outdoor advertising industry. To see some of her work please visit http://www.bpsoutdoor.com/blog/ . Questions or comments? She’ll be glad to hear from you at nfo@bpsoutdoor.com