Billboard Advertising in the City of Blade Runner

A jolly glitchy electronic hoarding in Los Angeles , California ( photo by Matt Novak , 2012 )

New York has the Statue of Liberty , St. Louis has the Gateway Arch and Los Angeles has the Hollywood sign .

If you ’re at all familiar with the history of the Hollywood sign , you ’ll in all probability think of that it started as an ad for a fresh housing ontogeny in 1923 call Hollywoodland . Using 4,000 light bulb , the sign was illuminated at nighttime and flashed in three succeed segment : first “ holly , ” then “ Mrs. Henry Wood , ” and then “ kingdom . ” The polarity would then illumine up in its entirety , all 4,000 short bulbs piercing through the wickedness of night to the city below .

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Los Angeles did n’t invent outdoor advertising ( that distinction may belong to the ancient Egyptians , who would station Egyptian paper rush notice of rewards pop the question for runaway slaves ) , but it certainly dally a spectacular role in the metropolis ’s history and its visual sensation of the future . As the automobile take away the city by storm in the first one-half of the 20th one C , it became increasingly necessary for advertisers to make their billboards larger so that bucket along automobilist would n’t miss their subject matter .

The 1982 film Blade Runner show viewers a dark , futuristic version of Los Angeles in the year 2019 . outstanding ad for Coca - Cola andPan Amblink back at you throughout the movie , loom large and bright in this highly branded vision of the future .

Digital billboard in 2019 Los Angeles from the film Blade Runner ( 1982 )

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Today , with digital billboard technology becoming commonplace , local government all over the country have been press advertizer with outright bans . city take that these relatively new forms of outside advertising are ugly and trouble drivers . Of course , these were the accurate claim that the antagonist of billboard advertising were making in the early 20th one C .

1917 representative for Life cartridge clip by Arthur T. Merrick showing automobilist take in the scene

Part of the terrible maturation in outdoor advertising in Los Angeles had to do with the fact that there was relatively little regularization of billboard in California . As the March 1929 California Law Review noted in “ Billboard Regulation and the Aesthetic Viewpoint with Reference to California Highways ” :

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What statute law has been enacted in California on the bailiwick [ ? ] barely any . This state prohibits the placing or sustainment of signs on prop of the state or its subdivision “ without lawful permission , ” or on private place without the consent of the possessor or leaseholder , and the signs so prohibited are declared to be pain . A signaling erect upon or over a state route or highway without a permit from the department of engineering is further declared to be a public nuisance , punishable as a misdemeanor . This is all the legislating on the subject in this state .

The essay goes on to contrast California ’s lax billboard laws with the laws of other states at that time : like Kansas ( billboards nix within 1000 foot of a highway , even if it ’s on private property ) , Connecticut ( billboards interdict within 100 feet of any public park , State Department woodland , resort area or graveyard ) , or Vermont ( billboards must converge the explicit commendation of the secretary of state in tolerant , size and location ) . Vermont would later go on to make billboards entirely illegal in that country in 1968 . In fact , four state ( Hawaii , Alaska , Maine and Vermont ) all banning hoarding advertising anywhere within their border .

The goal of the California Law Review paper was to propose new laws to order billboard . The paper suggested that a progressive tax be placed on billboards based upon their size ; that hoarding be cut back in areas that are deem unsafe for automobilist , such as at crossing , breaking ball and hills ; and that the sizing of billboard be curtail , the largest being relegated to “ commercial territorial dominion . ”

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Today , struggle over the regulation of billboard retain in Los Angeles . The last few years have seen major fights over so - called “ supergraphics ” — gigantic billboards placed on the position of building , stretch out many storey improbable . They ’re improbably hard to escape — rival those foretell by Blade Runner in size , if not electronics — and are scattered around the metropolis , most prominently downtown and along major freeway . The metropolis has sued many of the medium companies that negotiate and set up these advertizing , claim that they ’re illegal , and winning over $ 6 million in case thus far .

It ’s tough to say just how heavily the metropolis of Los Angeles will clamp down on the proliferation of billboards — be they digital or just huge — but for the time being Angelenos will likely remain just this side of a brand , Blade Runner time to come . With justseven years until 2019 , it seems legislation and judicial proceeding will be the only thing go on Los Angeles from accomplish full bladerunner .

range of a function : The 1917 Life mag illustration was scanned from the 1956 book prevision : Pictorial foretelling From the yesteryear by John Durant . Photo of a “ supergraphic ” in disrepair in business district Los Angeles byEric Richardson , used under its Creative Commons license .

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