In the US, it’s a fairly common thing to see advertisements on the side of highways. Generally speaking they usually are advertising one of the following products:
Legal Services
Health Insurance
Car Insurance
Medicine Ad
Some kind of religious ad either opposing (insert issue religious people do not like here) or asking people to “repent” (also including some kind of bible quote).
Advertisement for seedy nightclub
Advertisement for seedy stripclub
Advertisement for seedy bar
Advertisement reminding you (store) is off the next exit.
Advertisement for some kind of food product.
Does this type of advertising exist in your country or is it a foreign concept?
36 comments
As far as I know they are forbidden, and I believe that is something to do with the EU.
In Spain they were all removed and only allowed the Osborne bull (but painted in black)
The only ever billboards I ever noticed are usually reminders to drive safely or advertisements for local landmarks and tourism spots, like castles, museums, and the likes.
We don’t have them in Turkey, either. When I see them in the US, I think they’re very distracting.
Sometimes we have them, and they advertise a broad spectre of things: TV channels, restaurants, constructioj materials, cars, etc.
Only reminders [to wear seatbelts](https://media.snl.no/media/157440/standard_compressed_NTB_0IvBxalSzAE.jpg) or [to take a nap](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.YuyiHqgbqjmw3PPerEtaCgHaJ2%26pid%3DApi&f=1&ipt=be7e9fe284696612eceb90d5eb6bb9f197ee6bf1e6d6c7f5d01d7ee491d12da2&ipo=images) from the traffic authority
No billboards as such but it’s fairly common for farmers to have signs or even just old trailers with adverts on them very prominent in fields adjacent to motorways. Sometimes for businesses (a personal favourite being for the company Sofa King, “Sofa King – Cheap”), politics are very common too.
They are not very common, but near gas stations and industrial areas they can be found. What is advertised can be anything, what is NOT advertised is:
Legal Services
Health Insurance
Car Insurance
Medicine Ad
Some kind of religious ad either opposing (insert issue religious people do not like here) or asking people to “repent” (also including some kind of bible quote).
Advertisement for seedy nightclub
Advertisement for seedy stripclub
Advertisement for seedy bar
edit: Ok, apparently I either don’t pay attention or drive at the right places, but it seems car health insurance companies and God do advertise in the Netherlands.
For Croatia they’re not on just anywhere on highways, but in big cities. They usually advertise new cinema releases, furniture stores, new car models, tourism stuff, food places etc.
AFAIK it’s generally about food places like ‘Donalds, Max or Burger King. Often telling you how far away one of them is. Sometimes Max and ‘Donald’s even share board if they’re both 5 minutes away from the location the board is set up.
(Nothing like ones you can see on pictures from US though.)
And some places also have bought old truck trailer, put ad canvas on it and just parked the trailer on a field where it’s visible from the road.
But generally I’d say our major highways in Sweden are pretty spared from such garbage as ads. It exists sure, but to a very limited degree.
US was wild with billboards. Lots of shady crash lawyers and the highlight was one billboard saying that the democrats were the offspring of Satan.
We don’t have any as advertising along motorways is illegal for safety reasons (keep your eyes on the road). The closest thing is companies relatively close to the motorways that display their logo/name as close as legally allowed. Some slower roads you can find a limited number of smaller signs, almost exclusively showing cultural events of any kind in that city.
We sometimes have them at the city’s entrance. Mostly it’s local businesses advertising. You may also encounter religious billboards too, but they’re not common, usually placed by protestants which are religious minority here. Medicine ads are highly restricted and usually placed on a tv, not on a billboards. And I think I never encountered Legal Services ad in my life.
Not a thing here in Belgium. Very few distractions when driving along the highway over here.
Usually close by stores and restaurants. Like “McDonald’s – next stop” or even “Mr Whatever’s Whatever Store – 50% off – 3km ahead”
Very rarely and only close to big cities. Beer, casinos and construction companies/home improvement are the ones I’ve seen the most.
Normal State, provincial, municipal, and regional roads have these types of signs (not everywhere on these roads either, especially on the roads that have multiple lanes per direction) but absolutely NOT on the highways.
They are forbidden on highways, thanks to our Traffic Laws.
Not on highways.. though along the roads/ways in the big cities.. … The last time ( or maybe the only time) it was a big deal in the (early ?) 90ies when [Cindy Crawford](https://image.klikk.no/7074302.jpg?imageId=7074302&x=0&y=0&cropw=100&croph=100&width=480&height=392) where on boards for H&M… and being claimed to be the reason people driving off the road.. being a hazard to trafic..
In Finland we only have some that say something along the lines of “Gas station/restaurant X, 7 km ahead” or PR signs of town that is next “You are arriving to YY, we make the best pies”.
I think i might have seen car add once. I might remember wrong on that too.
Highways are private roads that you pay a toll to use, so I don’t think you’ll find many daily commuters there. They’re also detached from cities so there are no shops in sight, except for the occasional “[Autogrill](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autogrill)”, which is a place where you can eat, grab a quick snack, rest, take a shower (especially truck drivers) but it’s all to get you back on the road eventually.
You usually find billboards such as
“Exit to [here] 5 km ahead”
“Please drive carefully”
“Due to an accident [here], traffic is slowed down”
“Due to adverse weather conditions, the speed limit is reduced to [this number]”
etc.
Not that exciting.
I‘m just waiting for someone from Cyprus to explain the sad state of motorway billboards here (it’s much like in the US). Why are they not banned on an EU-wide level?
No, they have been banned few years ago for distracting drivers. Maybe something to do with EU. I’m from Czechia.
Not really. There are a few road safety posters and when you are getting close to a town they might have one or two billboards for some large stores, restaurants or sights to see there.
In the Netherlands, at least in my town there are huge bright digital billboards at the highway exits. It’s dangerous and they advertise usually local businesses.
For France. Much less than in the 90ies thanks to the EU regulations. It was a lawless eldorado for various kind of scammers, cash for goods, phone sex hotlines and so on back then.
It’s been a monumental improvement.
In ireland there are few due to planning permission being turned down for physical structure. Farmers with fields beside the road get around this by letting companies park trucks with their adverts next to motorway.
The usual Circle K/Garage/Mc Donalds next exit
Something weird about the US are billboards with alcohol or weed products. Not enough DUIs?
They’re banned as a visual distraction in much of Europe, including Ireland at least on motorways.
Farmers definitely get around it with the odd strategically parked branded trailer on land in view of the motorway.
You’re more likely to see them near non-motorway routes, which could be dual carriageway (divided highways) but they’re not as fast moving and often in more urban settings.
Motorways are much more highly regulated, although motorway like regulation can apply to some other categories of roads too.
The only ones i have seen are ads for fast food chains on barn walls along major roads reminding you that there is a Mcdonalds in 8 minutes
Only near cities, I’ve seen naybe like two billboards elsewhere. As to what they advertise, literally anything
No Advertisements are forbidden on/around highways
We do have typical drive save billboards and touristic information billboard that inform you of some place that you can visit or historic site that is close to the location.
But sometimes Mc Donald’s or other shops have big/high signs outside of the forbidden area so that you know which shops are there
We only have welcome signs if you’re changing cantons (think provinces, states etc). They’ll usually welcome you, have a picture of either the flag or a local attraction, and maybe a slogan like „city of museums“.
There are billboard here to keep your eyes on the road and not use your phone
Mostly various stores, services (construction, medicine etc), product brands (anything from Crocs to cars to heat pumps). Sometimes ads for events.
Lithuania.
Fun fact: There’s an ongoing lawsuit about this topic in my city.
As other people said, billboards are banned to reduce distraction on the road.
In my city a political group one day made a memorial for the victim of ww2 with a murals on a house on the side of the highway.
It is sued because of the size and position. It’s not exactly a billboard but it’s big and close to the road enough to be distracting. Highway administration want to take it down but it’s on private property.
We’ll see in a few years who wins.
The only billboards I remember seeing are for oncoming service stations.
This specific type of advertising doesn’t exist in Poland, I don’t really see any billboards advertising legal services, medicines, clubs, bars.
However, billboards are EVERYWHERE in Poland. No matter if it’s a highway or a minor road in the middle of nowhere – they’re everywhere. In towns and cities as well, lots of ads everywhere, on every wall. It’s sickening (in a negative way). When I was coming home from holidays and I was passing from Germany to Poland I immediately knew that I’m in Poland – because of those f… billboards. This is the Polish landscape, unfortunately.