Billboards
THE HISTORY OF ADVERTISING
Advertising has been around for vast amount of time it was first greatly used by the Egyptians who used papyrus with images on as what we commonly know as posters today. Some of the wall and rock art which we see today is another form of very early advertising. These can date back even further than the ancient Egyptians. Historical records show that billboards are one of the oldest and most recognized forms of advertising.
As education became more and more common within the communities there was a bigger need for printing this meant the development of advertising and reading. With more people being able to read the advertising market again improved. The main use for this development was to advertise newspapers and book which became more affordable when the printing press became widely used. Moving through to the early 1920’s advertising had progressed again. Development with technology meant that there were more things to advertise therefore leading to many ways for adverts to be shown. Radio stations were among this new technological transformation. This is when the used of audio based advertising became noticed.
This practise was carried on throughout the 40’s and 50’s but the only difference was that televisions had become more common within households. Therefore advertising on the television was used by advertising companies. The 60’s saw when the main development to modern advertising took place. It was the picked up on that visually pleasing imagery and text may increase sales. The introduction of catchy sayings and phrases were used.
Over the next 20 years a vast change within advertising companies. Not only this but again technology took another step forward. Leading to more televisons channels being set up. Not only where television channels set up but also the internet had just been introduced. This is the pinical in advertising development. The internet and television opened many doors for companies to come and take advertising to the next level. We look around today and see advertsing everywhere. Its only when you take a step back and think about the money and effort which has been pumped into advertising. The only thing is there is a fine line between what adverts are noticed, what adverts are effective and what just doesn’t appeal to people. If you get the combination of this right then you will end up with an effective advert which would be noticed by the public.
SO WHAT IS A BILLBOARD?
A billboard is an advertising method which is commonly used by many companies to promote either a service or a product. It is usually found in either very high traffic areas or densly populated towns and cities. This is simply due to the fact of the amount of people that would be passing past this promotional structure. Billboards offer not only effective and eye catching but also along with witty sloagans and distinctive visuals they end up being very visually pleasing piece’s of art. Posters are another type of billboard advertising but they aren’t as big. They are usually more commonly used within industrial areas and down high streets. This is because pedestrians don’t tend to look up around within a town centre so anything at eye level which can catch the eye of passers by is going to be a success.
There are several types of billboards; digital, painted and a new development inflatable billboard. Now over the last 20 years the development not only with design but technology as well has left us with several new and effective ways to advertise. Digital billboards are a huge amount of LED lights which can be programmed to light up and project a certain advert. Painted billboards aren’t as widely used as they were 20 years ago. This was the first step in the development of advertising. Painted billboards usually meant that the artist who produced the advert had to enlarge the image and actually physically paint the billboard using oil paint. Like I have mentioned the development of technology has made this method not as greatly used.
A new step to advertising is the use of inflatable billboards. These have been tried and tested over the last few years and have shown to be very effective usually at festivals and concerts. With a massive inflatable structure which can have a huge canvas attached to it not only give you a great portable billboard but also the dynamic to switch and swop what the advert it very easily. This, resulting in a possible saving of money.
LIMITATION WITHIN ADVERTISING
Throughout all types of advertising there has to be some limits and guidelines which have to be stuck to. The reason behind this is that with visually shocking and/or graphic imagery there could be effects on the viewer. For example if there was an advert with explicit nudity then it not only would it not appeal to a younger age range but it also wouldn’t be morally right for that age range to view something of that nature.
The thought of visually shocking advertising is a very good idea mainly due to the fact that it will leave an imprint of that advert on any viewers mind. There have been a lot of very controversial advertising campaigns some ending up not being shown on the television or printed within magazines.
You may remember the NHS stop smoking campaign where a person has a fish hook through the cheek. This was taken off the television after several complaints about how the images and effects actually affected some young viewers. This is a campaign that a lot of people can remember, the reason it’s so well remembered is because of the effects and images. It was only aired for a short amount of time but this shows how many different limits can change how an advert is viewed
As you can see from the images above these are 10 controversial images and different advertising campaigns from around the world. Within the selection there are some involving the NSPCC and also the RSPCA. These are the adverts which don’t make it onto the television due to the imagery.
MY BILLBOARD IDEAS
Linking in with my last project I aim to have 3 separate billboards each with 3 different styles and different limitations. One, which will have very shocking and graphics imagery. The second of which will be slightly less shocking but still have the impact of a good advert. And the final of the 3 being a very safe option which wills still have an intense message but nothing as shocking as the other two. The photography I am using is all based around my own work with some Photoshop skills being used to give the billboard the effect I want. I am basing my project around knife crime looking at how gangs and how the culture of today has effective the Great British youth.
For the first billboard in my sequence I am going to Photoshop a deep and very graphical flesh wound onto the neck of a person within a photo. This will therefore give it a very shocking effect. With this there will be a slogan to match the shocking image. The second billboard in my sequence I am going to use a previous image that I use in my newspaper article. It shows a gang stabbing an innocent passer by. This is another shocking image but it isn’t so shocking. And for the final billboard my ideas aren’t finalised but the thought of just a simple slogan on a plain back ground may offer a graphically pleasing billboard with a decent impact but with a very safe selection of imagery.
PHOTOGRAPHY EDITS
FINAL BILLBOARD DESIGNS
The first image of on billboard although not surrounded around knife crime or anything to do with crime I have produced an image, which is instantly shocking where there has been a massive wounded edited onto my image. That is the main reason why it would get banned. I like this image a lot because of how simple it is but also how it related in with the whole idea of soothers.
The second billboard I have created has involved some of my previous images. These have been selected and moved around to create a scene where someone looks as if they are being attacked. The addition of text with a very catchy slogan gives this billboard the appeal I aimed for. Shocking but pushing the limits this billboard is in the middle of my others.
The final billboard is still shocking but could be used anywhere and have the same impact. The simplistic design goes straight to the point and highlights that of knife crime. I really to like this design and the adaption onto other backgrounds will prove my point of this image being able to be used anywhere and everywhere.
With a newly assigned project I have decided to keep in with the gang and knife crime idea but I am going to expand my research to find out what other major or minor crimes can be found within the gang culture. An in-depth look into what crimes care commonly committed will therefore hopefully open up many more ideas for which I could use within my campaign. I am also going to focus on what existing campaigns there are for this kind of culture. This again will leave me with more options which I could use and adapt my own design on.
So as I have mentioned previously I am going to look into what crimes are commonly and constantly committed by gangs. As everyone already knows gangs are all about violence, territory and money. But a lot of people don’t understand how and why gangs do this. The reason for more gang territory is down to the money and the reputation of a gang. More money means more power and it’s the same with territory.
Money is a massive influence within the gang world. Whether its money for drugs or money for offensive weapons or to pay younger gang member to do certain tasks money is always what a gang is after. To any normal people gaining money means having a full time job and working hard for your money, But for a gang the way they see money coming in is by committing crime. Drug trafficking, drug dealing, car theft, prostitution, mugging and robbery. The list is endless. Whatever it takes to incorporate money usually a gang will be interested.
As I mentioned within my previous projects the gang culture, which has slowly come into the English youth society was originally from America. The world famous Bloods and Crips gangs, which were complete rivals in California. These two gangs battled for territory and cocaine distributions rights. The is becoming more noticed within the English gang culture. They have started causing territory wars and fighting for the drug distribution areas. Which in its own has resulted to an increase in crime and violence.
These areas are the ones I am going to focus on and base my campaign around. Due to some of the differences between the crimes it may mean that I need a range if new images but I will try and keep the whole campaign together by using either a logo or the same kind of design style throughout whichever crime I use. This will bring the whole thought of a united campaign together.
Local crime is something, which is, focused on daily throughout the local papers. The increase or decrease of crime rates, certain crime, which have happened, and serious cases are usually the ones, which get brought up. The reason why I mention this is because its putting threat on people that are close to me. They could be the next victims of a burglary or of anti social behaviour. The thing that I have noticed from this is that most of the crimes committed are due to gang relevance or due to drug habits that need to be funded.
Over the past year crime in my area as overall decreased but on in certain areas have the numbers increased. Anti-social behaviour, knife crime offences and also firearms offences have all been the areas that have increased. I feel that these three areas are the ones I need to focus on.
The idea of an advertising campaign which focus’s on these issue may not only make people aware of the current situation but may also open the eyes of people involved with gangs. The exposure of the crime underworld may burn it out and stop young people being introduced to gangs and crime.
There are existing campaigns on the market at the moment so trying to design one, which stands out from the others, is again a big task. With websites and police forces working together to create these campaigns this kind of market is one which I hard to get into. The existing campaigns tend to only focus on one of many crimes that are committed daily. With the idea I’ve had of bringing all of these crimes together to create a vast portfolio for the campaign I feel it will have a more substantial effect with the possibility to dominate the market.
With the increase in knife crime throughout the whole of the UK there is obviously going to be several business’s that are going to try and help lower this type of crime. www.knifecrime.org is an organisation, which has released a campaign like I said to lower knife crime. Some of their artwork isn’t to the best quality but the work they do may make up for this. As I’m not going to be actually working with people involved with knife crime I am going to have to use my imagery and designs to appeal to people.
Similar to the campaign about knife crime the one for firearms doesn’t actually focus on helping people involved with crime it actually try to stop the sales of firearms within the UK. Hopefully restricting the amount of firearms available for purchase, this possibly resulting in stopping the increase of gun crime. Having both of these campaigns to compete against means my advertising and imagery has to be top notch.
