Advertising

Tuesday, 13. May 2008, 18:37:46

According to Wikipedia:
"Advertising is a form of communication whose purpose is to inform potential customers about products and services and how to obtain and use them."
Formulated like this, it sounds correct and acceptable. Reading further:
"Every major medium is used to deliver these messages, including: television, radio, movies, magazines, newspapers, video games, the Internet, and billboards."
Right. And billboards.
As far as I can remember, billboards were rarely used in Serbia (and former Yugoslavia, as well). But after 2001, first companies for billboard advertising appeared in Serbia. They started shy at the beginning, but soon, this kind of business proved to be a gold mine. Everyone wanted to put their products and services on billboards. Everyone!!! It was all reasonable untill they started to put them in almost every piece of free space - sidewalks, parks, walls, building roofs, near the highways. It is not rare to see one billboard in front of another, like here:

The next three are within 30 meters from first to the last one, right in front of the school

and this one is on the school itself

I like to have my coffee in a big cup early in the morning but still...

Big beer....

I think guests in this hotel would probably like to see the beautiful view from central city square over the river, but.....

Not to mention that all of them are ruining beautiful old buildings and architecture masterpieces in the old part of a city. But profit is much stronger and persuasive, especially in a poor country among people living with average salary of about 300eur. One of my friends was offered to have payed electricity and some cash on top of it just to let one of these giants to grow up in her backyard near the highway.

She accepted, what else she could do? This is a nice amount of money on her acount every month. Plus payed electricity....
And me? I am trying to look high up at the sky.... following my bird

Sniff & The TearsKalemegdan

Comments

Mmmm kafi

How ridiculous it is to hang them up right outside windows

. And I agree, they are really spoiling beautiful old buildings. JC Decuax makes way too much money...

By rose-marie, # 13. May 2008, 20:09:53

Luckily I live in a small town now..
Those boards can get pretty much everywhere..

they're out to get us..

By Cois, # 13. May 2008, 23:59:58

Billboards are a drag for sure. I hate to admit that I might cave if offered free electric and cash monthly.

By Abbacus, # 14. May 2008, 03:32:29

You miss nothing out of New York ! You have it there already!
However I would love some INSTINSKA STRAST PRIMA CAFE!

are any restrictions of how far from schools provocative ads can be?? Also tobacco ads?? I hope they are.

By ellinidata, # 14. May 2008, 04:03:52

Wow, those are huge

! In my city it's very expensive to set up such a billboard

By allangie, # 14. May 2008, 04:14:46

Darko your picture of the sky is a stellar!

By ellinidata, # 14. May 2008, 04:22:45

Rose - good morning, have a cup of

Cois - they are even in a smaller towns now but luckily not in this quantity

Abaccus - so you can imagine how much money they are making; their offer was so good, my friend didn`t even tried to negotiate

Angeliki - when I was writing this I thought about Times Square and all those huge billboards throughout middle west of USA I have seen in movies

Alla - so you don`t have any? :envious:

By gdare, # 14. May 2008, 04:39:59

Angeliki, I haven`t tried this particular coffee so I can`t tell you if it is good or not; but photo looks nice for sure

By gdare, # 14. May 2008, 04:42:20

Of course we do, but not that big

Maximum size is like one of a "Pet centar"

By allangie, # 14. May 2008, 06:17:56

This is an ridiculous amount of billboards you've got. It's good that you're so tall, so you can keep your head up in the sky.

By attilasoul, # 14. May 2008, 06:44:27

how tall is he???

Darko how tall are you??
I am considered tall but my head is not up in the sky.

Or I hope it is not .

By ellinidata, # 14. May 2008, 10:47:07

Alla - those are big, I think this one is about 15m maybe more...

Tilla - and all of them you can see in this post is not a 30th part of all of them I see when I go to my office or back home. I travel for about 15km, I don't think I could count all of them

yes, sometimes it is good to be tall

Angeliki - 6 foot 3 (192cm)

By gdare, # 14. May 2008, 13:09:23

oh my HELL. you won't ever convince me of the great wonder that is a billboard

i'm a country girl. here we do have some, but nothing like that! thankfully.

By Capegirl, # 14. May 2008, 15:05:01

wow!! 6.3"

that's giantenormous!!!!(my word

)
did you order a bed to be custom made or you are sleeping
on the floor ??

By ellinidata, # 14. May 2008, 17:42:04

Michelle - I envy you; I can still remember the times when streets were just streets, with trees and street lamps, without flashy board that tries to convice me to buy Bonux washing powder, Grand coffee or Always Ultra menstrual pads

"So light that makes those days my happy days!!!"

Angeliki - I forgot to answer to a part of your question: we have a law that forbid to advertise alcohol drinks, tobacco and pornography in public places (thanks God); and no, I have standard bed, 2m long; people in Serbia are generally tall

By gdare, # 14. May 2008, 19:33:51

HA HA! there is also no way I would ever be convinced that a particular brand of feminine hygiene product is going to make those happy days. or even good. i don't care if they're light as a feather

ah but i like the no advertising of liquor etc. that's a good law.

yes once streets were streets.

By Capegirl, # 14. May 2008, 20:45:57

By gdare, # 14. May 2008, 22:37:47

...here we have had a binge on getting rid of them or sizing down to the size Alla speaks of, but they still persist in large format on our highways, which to me is an absolutely stupid place to have them at all.
That is a crazy amount Darko..

Great post

By AOTEAROAnz, # 15. May 2008, 05:29:15

Thanks Henry. It is amazing how many of them we have here. I wasn`t aware until one morning, driving in a bus to my office, I tried to count them, in only one part of town. I got confused, because the bus went too fast to count all of them

It is especially annoying to have them by the sides of highway

By gdare, # 15. May 2008, 05:36:45

Agreed..

Its great to see you..

By AOTEAROAnz, # 15. May 2008, 05:50:30

Thankyou for the interesting insight into your city!

Billboards are controversial here too. Farmers often put them in fields alongside motorways, which looks very unsightly in the middle of the countryside!

By SittingFox, # 15. May 2008, 17:05:35

Yes, one day it will be better to travel by plane than to drive a car - it will be as you are sitting at home, watching TV

By gdare, # 15. May 2008, 17:21:02

my question is whether we really need more media for advertising? i suppose the advertisers would say "you can never have too many" but we have tv, magazines, newspapers, radio, cereal boxes etc etc...

By Capegirl, # 15. May 2008, 20:17:33

but what about the "chipsy lite" ad..is it covering up all those people's windows?? in that apartment!?

By Capegirl, # 15. May 2008, 20:19:02

Actually, this is a hotel in a center of Belgrade. And, when you look through a window you can see through a fabric but this is not same as if there was nothing.
And no, we don`t need more media for advertising. I wish there are less of them already.

By gdare, # 15. May 2008, 21:07:55

ha ha oh ok. you can see through the fabric so that's ok!? LOL hilarious. the visitors should hold a protest march. imagine coming to a hotel and there is a veil over the window.

By Capegirl, # 15. May 2008, 21:54:25

Exactly my point

By gdare, # 16. May 2008, 04:45:50

the billboards are taking over...

or they've already done that

O_o

By rolling_thunder, # 16. May 2008, 13:44:35

Yes, too many of them....

By gdare, # 16. May 2008, 15:51:32

I wanna get into the billboard business..

make a buck or two..

By Cois, # 17. May 2008, 10:52:27

I wanna get into the billboard business..

make a buck or two..

By Cois, # 17. May 2008, 10:52:27

I wanna get into the billboard business..

make a buck or two..

By Cois, # 17. May 2008, 10:53:27

One or two.... millions?

By gdare, # 17. May 2008, 12:01:22

Man my connection sucks..

uhm.. Let's make it two..

By Cois, # 18. May 2008, 00:59:12

By gdare, # 18. May 2008, 05:33:25

Same here, such an eye pollution...

By volkuro, # 19. May 2008, 23:07:12

Yesterday I have payed more attention, and take a look at our means of public transportation - we jave a lot of commercials outside and inside of busses, trolley busses and tram lines. Also on the roofs of taxis.

By gdare, # 20. May 2008, 04:28:32

same thing happens in Mexico City. It's visual contamination.

some people say that it causes more accidents . I don't like it at all.

By yomeriux, # 20. May 2008, 23:15:32

I think it affects mind in profound, deeper level. If you come to shop and have desire to buy only one certain sort of washing powder, then you know you are under influence of one very good commercial. Commercials have influence on our subconscious mind and the strongest are the ones that involves babies and sex.

By gdare, # 21. May 2008, 04:44:41