Just like every other New Yorker, I have experienced the rush of LIE's giant billboard ads coming at me on the way out of and into the Midtown Tunnel on numerous occasions. You cannot really avoid the experience – there are just too many possibilities that can draw you that way: JFK, LaGuardia, US Open at Flushing Meadows, its next-door neighbors the Mets, your relatives in Queens, your suburban friends with their Near Long Island homes, and maybe even rich acquaintances with summer residences in the Hamptons. Hey, it's possible you just like sitting in traffic for hours. Whatever is the reason, the majority of people who live in or visit NYC have been exposed to the visual calls of various brands, upcoming movies, TV seasons' premiers, etc. strategically positioned on that particular spot between the boroughs.
Liberal extremists and snooty hipsters unconditionally reject all forms of commercial publicity as the front-end of consumerism (yet, they all support it by the sheer fact of having facebook accounts and iPhones). But I'm no hypocrite – I don't simplistically dismiss advertising and even consumerism itself as evil. In full honesty: quality objects are quite necessary in my life for aesthetic, utilitarian, vain, and psycho-therapeutic reasons. Quality being an operative word, of course. Unfortunately, the majority of contemporary promotions target general public that cannot afford quality anymore. And it has been reflected on the ever-changing billboards.
Over the years I've experienced a broad spectrum of reactions to the images coming into my view on LIE. At worst, they've ranged from "Who the hell is this ad for? Billionaires?" to "God, that's just cheap and ugly!" And at best, I have been pleasantly surprised by the resurrection of a high quality classic (Longines); awed by the first digital installation (FreshDirect); excited by the success of a small business (7 for All Mankind – unfortunately, they sold out to a global conglomerate VF within a couple of years); inspired by the social changes we have witnessed (Queer As Folk).
Sadly, in the last couple of years my reaction range narrowed to one very intense sliver of irritation, but at least the billboards were largely occupied as recently as four months ago. Imagine my surprise last weekend when I saw that less than 50% of the boards were actually covered by promo bills. I don't think I've ever seen them like that.
No, wait! There was a period back in, I believe, 2012 when a lot of ads had to be taken down and boards dismantled due to the strict enforcement of the billboard laws related to the size and distance requirements. But it is safe to assume that both the space owners and advertisers overcame the regulation hurdles, since, as I said, I just recently saw practically all billboards occupied.
So, that's not it. What then? Two things, really – the national impoverishment and the incurable social-media degeneracy.
You see, the billboards are not cheap. It's not Super Bowl prices ($4.5 million for a 30-second spot this year), but still – an LIE billboard rents for about $30K per month. And that's at the time when every single company that targets the consumer market with its goods or services MUST make room in their advertising budgets for GoogleAds (which also owns YouTube), iAds, facebook, Twitter, etc.
Multiply that consideration by the wavering consumer confidence (I don't care what the "official" numbers are showing) compounded with the dwindling buying power and you come to the point when even the companies selling the highest volumes of consumer goods have to start making tough choices: whether to allocate $300K per year to a physical spot with a maximum of 210,000 possible views a day (LIE's 2014 auto throughput) or to a virtual spot tied to some viral YouTube video that generates 5 million views in 5 days.
The empty spots along the expressway testify to the choices the companies are making. It's totally opportunistic, of course. Moreover, from my POV it's also totally short-sighted – there are so many existing and potential problems with online advertising, I intend to write a separate post on the subject. It is possible that we are yet to see the times when advertisers will be fighting for the physical publicity spaces. But for now, more and more billboards along the highways and on the City's buildings will go empty.
I have a feeling that even the famous and fabulous digital screens at one of the most visited places in the world (50 million visitors a year), Times Square, may end up going dark at some point. After all, nowadays the tourists and locals alike are mostly looking down at their electronic devices, not up. So, it would be only fiscally prudent for the consumer-oriented companies to spend $1M-$4M a year (2015 rates) some place else.
And I find it very telling that the most gigantic (the whole block, 77 feet tall by 323 feet long, 20 pixels big) and the most expensive ($2.5 million for EVERY 4 WEEKS) LED advertising screen was taken by the company that makes billions on online advertising – Google. They can actually afford it easily.
Of course, the blank billboards are good news for graffiti artists like Rambo – more real estate for them! There is a poetic justice in that: the promotion of consumerism gets replaced by the guerrilla art. Historically, the explosion of street art always went hand-in-hand with the economic downfalls. That's why in the past it frequently (and expediently) turned into Prop Art – going from philosophical expressionism straight into political activism. People should remember that as a valuable lesson in social science.
In my opinion, it's not accidental that the crumbling of our ecological and socioeconomic environments coincides with the aesthetic degradation we are experiencing right now – when people bow to false idols and nepotistic, masturbatory garbage is passed as the "contemporary art" by the pushers from auction houses and big-name galleries. I can only hope that real artists will fulfill their soul-changing mission and force people to look away from their little crack-emitting handheld displays and up at something awesome and powerful.
The Frustrated CFO 