Arts Trucks ‘n’ Ads
The commute to Tacoma every morning and night is taking its toll, but tonight I saw something that made me nearly run off the road. Actually, I did veer to the right shoulder from the right lane so I could get a better glimpse of the right side of the U-Haul-shaped truck that had scrolling, back-lit ads on three sides, like those moving movie billboards at mall entrances. I remember once, a few years ago, pulling into a parking space and noticing an ad on the concrete bumper. Where can ads not go? Are these distracting, lit-up, truck-sized moving billboards going to take over our roadways? What’s up with this? Or do I just need to take my commute pills? I wish I’d had a camera phone, so I could demonstrate the weird movie-on-wheels effect.
This has been making me crazy for months. Because we are trapped on the road by all the traffic, they get on the road for no purpose other than advertising.
Every time some private person wants to put art on their property near a road there is a big to do about distracting the motorists, but commercial speech is treated as the only legitimate use of the first amendment.
What really pisses me off is the Deva Vu Hummers driving around advertising. The first time I saw one I though, okay, they must be taking some dancers home. So I pulled up beside to wave and it was just bouncers, driving around.
That said, I do have lettering on my landscape truck. But I don't just take up space so people have to read it. I'm going to or from a job or something.