Billboards Quotes

“Whom one is speaking to - or which aspect of their character - fundamentally determines the meaning and consequences of an exhortation. 'Indulge Your Desires' comes across very differently on a billboard advertising SUVs than it does spray-painted across the broken windows of an SUV dealer. It follows that what you say is not nearly as important as how and when you say it.”
― CrimethInc., Contradictionary

“The billboards ruin everything. The historical flavor, the old-time architecture, even the beauty of the wooded hillside—all are sacrificed.
Pole-lines and wires may be accepted, like fences, as part of the basic American landscape. They do their work without striving to be conspicuous, and often their not-ungraceful curves add a touch of interest, an intricacy of pattern, even some beauty. Billboards are different. . . . billboards blast themselves into the viewer's consciousness. . . .
some of the smaller billboards—those advertising local hotels, service-stations, or small industries—seem to have a certain rooting in the soil, and are often modest and comparatively harmonious to the setting.
The large billboards—owned by special companies, usually advertising the products of mass-production—are always placed in the most conspicuous spots, and have designs and colors carefully chosen to clash with the background. One feels a difference between a home-produced: "Stop at Joe's Service Station for Gas—Two Miles," or "The Liberty Café—Short Orders at All Hours—Give Us a Try!" and some gigantic rectangle advertising tires or beer.
Large billboards are now springing up along U. S. 40 even in the vastnesses of the Nevada sagebrush country. They are an abomination! Personally, I try to buy as little as possible of anything that is so advertised.”
― George R. Stewart, U. S. 40: Cross Section of the United States of America

“Do billboard salesmen record their sales on charts? If so, who's at the top of the billboard charts for billboard sales?”
― Ryan Lilly

“For the canny traveler, the map is dotted with tourist traps that were once something sincere, something worthy of reverence that gave way to branded merchandise. We follow the billboards that are as accurate as those guiding us to the Corn Palace or the World’s Largest Ball of Twine, kick at the dirt a bit, watch an overinflated PowerPoint or squint at a dusty artifact, peek at the gift shop, and go home with less money but nothing in value gained. These sites are mental stamps that one was in a place where something had once mattered, but the veil between Then and Now is thick and impermeable.”
― Thomm Quackenbush, Holidays with Bigfoot

“Billboards Build Freedom of Choice

Yegtit?
Look See.
AMERICA BUILDS BILLBOARDS
so billboards kin bill freedoma choice
between-yeah between billbores no
WAIT
its yedoan hafta chose no more between
say like trees and billbores lessa course
wenna buncha trees is flattint out inta
BILLB-
yeah yegotit
youkin pick between well
hey! see! like dat!
ALL VYNIL GET WELL DOLLS $6.98
or-watch wasdat comin up?
PREPAID CAT?
PREPAID CATASTOPHE COVERAGE
yeah hell youkin have damnear anythin
FREE 48 INCH TV IN EVERY ROOM
see! or watchit!
OUR PIES TASTE LIKE MOTHERS
yeah but look bud no chickenin out
because billbores build
AM-
yeah an AMERICA BUILDS MORE
buildbores to build more-
sure yougotta! yugotta have
FREEDOM TO
hey!...”
― Earle Birney, One Muddy Hand: Selected Poems

“We have some of the highest literacy rates in all of recorded history and all that’s done is create more billboards.”
― Jessica Marie Baumgartner, Reclaiming Femininity: Saving Women's Traditions & Our Future