Summer Shorts: A Spotlight on Billboards

This Week …

Summer Shorts: Driving through town, what catches your eye?

1. Spotlight on Billboards

Upside Down Cleverness

For my Business Writing class at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, students were tasked with finding a significant error involving writing for their final paper. Kennedy (Sibbitt) Bragg submitted an outstanding paper featuring an upside-down billboard in Omaha. Impressively, she went the extra mile by contacting the plumbing company behind the billboard to learn its backstory, which she included in her paper:

“I reached out to American Rooter Plumbing directly for comment … I was surprised to find out that this was an intentional marketing tactic! She said that she had come across a similar tactic being used on Facebook, and it had garnered a lot of attention. These have only been up for a small amount of time, and they have received over 20 phone calls about it. When I asked her about the tactic from a revenue standpoint, she said that plumbing is not an industry that traffic can be driven to in a traditional way, because you either need a plumber at one given moment, or you don’t. Brand recognition and name recall is more important, so when people do need plumbing services, they think of a particular company to call. The billboard being upside down is causing people to look harder at it (here I am writing an entire paper about it), so in a sense, this works. From there, when people potentially reach out concerning the ‘mistake’ they are met with wonderful customer service.”

Who knew that a strategic decision to do something upside down could draw more attention … and clients … than following the rules.

What Does Hauptman O’Brien Wolf & Lathrop Do?

The law firm boils it down very clearly:

The “Billboard Exercise” challenges organizations to distill their core message into a succinct, impactful statement that could fit on a billboard. Hauptman O’Brien provides a master class.

Dating Billboard Catches Flack

Risky humor can have consequences.

Last month, Bumble, a dating app, introduced a new campaign aimed at empowering women in their dating journeys. Billboards with messages like “a vow of celibacy is not the answer” and “thou shalt not give up on dating and become a nun” sparked backlash for mocking the personal choice of celibacy. Online criticism that explains many reasons why women are choosing celibacy, led Bumble to apologize, remove the ads, and pledge support for the National Domestic Violence Hotline and organizations aiding women and marginalized communities.

Check out this story from Forbes: Bumble Removing Controversial Celibacy Ads Following Online Backlash: What To Know or this story from the New York Post.