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OARDENERS' CHRONICLE 



Combating the Sign Board Along the Highways 



JAMES BOYD, President Pennsylvania Horticultural Society 



WHEN your Secretary suggested that I should say 

 a few words to> you at this meeting in regard to 

 sign boards, I felt that he was assigning me a 

 subject that had been pretty well threshed out by various 

 speakers and writers during the past twenty years. In 

 spite of all. that has been spoken and writttn. however, 

 the sign boards, have increased in size and number and 

 as far as I can observe the nuisance is greater today than 

 ever before. Everybody condemns them except the peo- 

 ple who pay for and erect thtm. I am speaking particu- 

 larlv of the enormous sign boards that are placed along 

 our highways and deface the landscape often spoiling 

 what would otherwise be a beautiful scene or view. It 

 is a strange case. Let me call attention to some of its 

 unusual features. In the first place these big sign boards 

 are expensive, very e.xpensive. The owner of the land 

 gets his rental and the sign board makers have to build 

 and brace them securely and paint them as attractively as 

 possible. I am told that about forty millions of dollars 

 were spent on sign and bill boards last year. It seems 

 incredible. Since I was invited to this meeting, I have 

 been asking all my friends what they think of sign board 

 advertising. I have inquired of men and women, young 

 and old and in different walks of life. I can find nobody 

 who ever purchased an article because he or she saw it 

 advertised on a sign board. Of course the people who 

 observe them most are the people who travel by train 

 or motor and they are the ones who are loudest in their 

 condemnation. You have, perhaps, noticed that the enor- 

 mous boards on the highways often advertise automobile 

 tires or gasoline and these advertisers greatly offend 

 the very people whom they wish to sell. 



Does anybody know the true value of sign board ad- 

 vertising? Most of the articles advertised on sign boards 

 are also advertised in magazines and newspapers. I 

 wonder how a manufacturer or dealer estimates his re- 

 turn from sign boards on the highways? I was a manu- 

 facturer for many years and I have spent thousands of 

 dollars in advertising-, principally in magazines and trade 

 papers and it always seemed to me as if a dollar's w-orth 

 of magazine advertising would bring more trade than 

 ten dollars worth of sign board advertising. In the first 

 place, the intelligent buyer generally wishes to know the 

 reason why. You can't get him by "Use Good Grit Gaso- 

 line" or "Buy Brown's Biscuit"' or "Try Thompson's 

 Tires." You nnist tell him why he should buy or try 

 these things. Explain greater durability, more mileage, 

 better appearance, reasonable price, true economy, and 

 all those ideas or thoughts that might appeal to a wished- 

 for custcuner. You can't put those on a highway sign- 

 board because they take up too much room. Letters 

 have to be large. People pass quickly. You can put 

 them in a newspaper, magazine or even in a street car 

 advertisement. I wonder if a sign board advertiser ever 

 received a letter saying, "Saw your advertisement on a 

 highway sign board, please send a price list or catalog." 

 I don't believe ihey ever did. But advertisers are con- 

 stantly receiving letters saying "I saw your advertisement 

 in the So & So Magazine, please send me your catalog, 

 etc." Now the sign board man has one advantage over 

 the magazine and newspaper man because you can't keep 

 tabs on him. He makes the broad claim of "( ieneral 

 Publicity" and apparently "gets away with it." With the 

 newspaper and magazine it is quite easy to key your ads 

 and check them off as everv mail comes in, but with the 



sign board that is ])ractically impossible. The sign board 

 solicitor claims everything but can prove nothing. On 

 the other hand, we who are opposed to sign boards, can- 

 not prove absolutely that they are not worth their cost. 

 We can prove that they are obnoxious to the great ma- 

 jority of the people whose custom they seek. You cannot 

 help reading these enormous signs but the words are 

 quickly out of your mind as they are succeeded by other 

 sign boards or more interesting sights. Their value is 

 purely local. You may spend $500.CO or S.^ ,000.00 on a 

 few sign boards in New York and New England but they 

 will not bring you many customers in St. Louis, Chicago, 

 or San Francisco : whereas, that same amount spent with 

 first-class magazines or newspapers v\'ill bring you trade 

 from all over the country and occasionally from remote 

 parts of the world. Wiry, I remember when my firm was 

 advertising in ten or a dozen of the prominent magazines 

 of this country, we had inquiries from all over the world. 

 Through one magazine we secured excellent agents in 

 South Africa and a very good customer in Hong Kong, 

 China. Big boards on the Lincoln Highway cannot do 

 that. 



If hotels who use large sign boards on the road, as 

 you approach their town, would oirly spend that same 

 amoimt of money m paint and flowers, I believe it would 

 bring much better returns. The other day wdien motor- 

 ing between Philadelphia and Baltimore, I noticed several 

 signs placed along the road by a small-town hotel -in 

 Maryland. They read "Tired? Tuscaloosa Hotel, Ox- 

 ford." Then further along "Hungry? Tuscaloosa Hotel, 

 Oxford."' "Thirsty? Tuscaloosa Llotel, Oxford." Now 

 that wasn't the name of the hotel nor the name of the 

 town. But it will answer the purpose. The signs were 

 moderate m size and they didn't mar the landscape to 

 any great extent, ^^'e noticed them because they were 

 rather unusual and I certainly intended to notice the 

 hotel, but although we drove through at a very moderate 

 speed, glancing at the shops and people, their homes, etc., 

 we never observed the hotel and forgot all about it until 

 we were miles bevond. Now I am sure if the proprietor 

 had saved the cost of his sign boards and spent that 

 moncv making his place attractive with fresh paint and 

 flowers, travelers v,-onld be sure to notice his house and 

 would he nuich more inclined to stop than they are from 

 reading his unique but ugly sign boards. By the way, it 

 was on this route, soon after passing "Sylmar" and before 

 reaching "Rising Sun" that the road goes through an 

 attractive country down a gradual grade and comes to 

 an end where another road crosses at right angles, the 

 route turning sharp to the right. At this point, has been 

 erected a very large and obnoxious sign board. It is 

 far from all houses and as you go down the grade it is 

 most obtrusive and spoils what would otherwise be a 

 pretty view. I cannot remember what it advertises but 

 mv impression is, it was either gasoline or tires. I sup- 

 pose we read it, but we were so loud in our execrations 

 that all else passed from our minds. I will, however, try 

 to find out what it advertised and when I learn I will 

 promise faithfully not to use that gasoline or tire if I 

 can possibly avoid it. 



I understand that your Convention at St. Louis passed 



a resolution to institute a national camjiaign to arouse 



public sentiment against sign-board advertising on the 



highways. I shall be interested to hear just what has 



{Continued on page 730) 



