I got the sense that Barry Base (Strategy, Jan. 28/02) and I and a lot of other ad people are alike. There really are some poorly devised, off-strategy, ugly-looking, plain old dumb ads out there. I figure there are enough to fill one of your issues just listing them. I wonder what that says about the qualifications of those who create them?

But, Barry’s article reminded me how frustrating it is to see all the even dumber, stupider, awfully designed billboards adorning Toronto of late…well not just of late but as far back as the medium itself.

I can’t fathom how any big organization that spends hundreds of thousands of dollars using billboards can allow some of these idiotic and just bad executions to go up.

Here’s a tip guys…maximum five words of copy and make them just about as large as the board itself. Ya got about two seconds to communicate. Without the eyes of an eagle and the processing speed of a computer not a single consumer can understand the message on many of these billboards.

So Barry, how about doing a humorous piece on outdoor boards?

John Luciani

Calexis Advertising

Toronto

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