Published: 04 February 2010
Dear Editor,
Georgia has a passion for outdoor advertising – it is, after all, the basis for the Ted Turner empire. But, in Cherokee County, we must decide whether we're open to the blight of billboard advertising that blocks our views and brings down property values.
Do we not have enough advertising in our lives? Every bowl game this winter has had advertising on the field, on the screen during the game, at commercial breaks and by the commentators during the game. There are sponsors naming the bowl, the stadium, the halftime show and the replays. We're paying for that advertising in the products we buy.
Advertising invades my fill-up time at the gas station, and it chases me during grocery shopping on airwaves, carts, packaging and at the check-out.
Advertising's between my songs on the radio, around the articles of my newspaper, and it sometimes lets me see my computer screen.
They come at us on telephones, faxes, computer games and pop-ups.
The effectiveness of billboard advertising, as compared to other forms, is suspect, regardless of what the billboard companies promote. Have you ever bought something due to a billboard?
Ads are important to promote products and services, but they've taken over every inch of our lives. We're saturated with advertising. It's time for the county and cities here to decide whether more advertising, especially of this type, is important to the success of our businesses, and, more importantly, to the betterment of our citizens and aesthetics to allow them to continue proliferating.
Advertisers will continue their march into our lives, something we as consumers continue to pay the price to allow them to do. How much does this litter on a stick cost our community?
Patrick Thompson, Woodstock
