In the Phoenix area, I have noticed two LCD billboards on either side of the city advertising hospital ER wait times. When noticing the one in the North valley, close to Cave Creek and the 101 I realized how silly this message truly was. This billboard shows the wait time for Scottsdale Shea hospital. What’s wrong with that? First of all, the billboard is visible while heading West on the 101, and the hospital is East. Second, Shea is a good 10+ miles from the billboard and there are two other hospitals closer. So, if you need to go to the ER, your not heading 10 miles away thus it’s a horrible location for the billboard.
I haven’t had time to research whether or not the hospital’s advertising on these billboards are private or public. I certainly hope our tax dollars aren’t paying for misguided ad placement. And I wonder if the billboard was chosen simply due to lack of inventory. For those of you who don’t know, Phoenix is the largest major city with the fewest amount of billboards. So I can imagine some marketing person insisting on billboards, period, with little regard to effectiveness.
What other silly advertising have you seen lately?
