Human billboard
Encyclopedia
A human billboard is someone who applies an advertisement on his or her person. Most commonly, this means holding or wearing a sign of some sort, but also may include wearing advertising as clothing or in extreme cases, having advertising tattoo
ed on the body. Sign holders are known as human directionals in the advertising industry, or colloquially as sign walkers, sign wavers, sign twirlers or (in British territories) sandwich men. Frequently, they will spin or dance
or wear costumes with the promotional sign in order to attract attention
.
Human billboards have been used for centuries. In 19th century London
, the practice began when advertising posters became subject to a tax
and competition for wall space became fierce. Prince Pückler-Muskau
described the activity in 1820s London as such:
The banning of posters from private property in London in 1839 greatly increased the use of human billboards. Besides holding signs, some human billboards would wear sandwich board
s. Charles Dickens described the advertisers as "a piece of human flesh between two slices of paste board". As the novelty of seeing humans carrying placards wore off, advertisers would come up with variations on the theme in order to catch the eye, such as having a "parade" of identical human billboards, or having the human billboards wear outrageous costumes.
Human directionals are still widely used, especially in areas that have a lot of pedestrian traffic, but even in places that have a great deal of automobile traffic. For the latter, the signs will frequently be shaped like arrow
s in order to direct traffic to the location being advertised. Eye Shot, a Lake Forest, California
company claims to have invented modern sign spinning using arrow-shaped signs. The modern human directional employs a number of tricks to attract attention, such as spinning the sign on one finger, throwing it up in the air and spinning it, or even riding the sign like a horse. Another California company, AArrow Advertising, conducts "boot camps
" to train its employees, and has also filed patent
applications for a number of its "signature moves".
However, the use of such attention-grabbing tricks has been criticized by city officials as being distracting
to drivers, and as a result, a number of cities have banned sign twirling. Some companies like Enlarge Media Group and Jet Media are able to offer human directionals as "sign walkers", a less distracting form of sign twirling. Further restrictions on sign walkers in Arizona
caused Jet Media Promotions, the state's largest supplier of human billboards, to sue the city of Scottsdale
. The company's owner then successfully campaigned for legislation
that made it illegal for cities in Arizona to ban such advertising.
Demand for human directionals has significantly increased since the introduction of sign-twirling techniques. In temperate and warm locations, sign holders can be employed year-round and their effectiveness has been amply demonstrated. For example, during the month of October 2006, nearly 8% of the 3,600 people who visited model homes in a housing development in Moreno Valley, California
were directed there by human directionals. The Entertainment Factory in Florida provides human directionals to several successful businesses in Central Florida. Some use them as their sole form of advertising. Naturally, there are concerns that just as in 19th-century London, as human directionals become more and more commonplace, their effectiveness will be diminished.
In the U.S., independent tax preparers, and some tax-preparation chains, use sign wavers in costume, seasonally near the US personal income tax deadline of April 15. The costumes are usually Statue of Liberty
or Uncle Sam
costumes. This seems to be a recent, 21st-century trend and is becoming common and competitive.
Sign wavers are also commonly used in the U.S. for Halloween stores, which are only temporary and relocate each year, and thus do not have permanent store signs, nor time to gradually build a customer base
by word of mouth
, or by being shown on web mapping
services. These human billboards often wear a Halloween costume
supplied by the store.
s being extremely popular. At first, T-shirts were used exclusively as undergarment
s, but as early as the 1930s, they were already used for advertising, with a 1939 The Wizard of Oz
promotional shirt being a prized collector's item today. The 1948 United States presidential campaign featured a T-shirt with "Dew It for Dewey", referring to candidate Thomas Dewey
, which is now housed in the Smithsonian Institution
. T-shirts have since been used to advertise all different kinds of products, services, and political messages.
The newest trend is to have moving pictures on clothing. The first instance of this was done at the 2003 Rugby World Cup
, where "Telstra girls" wore T-shirt
s outfitted with a small television screen and a DVD player
, called "TelePAKs". This was duplicated in the United States in 2004 with "Adver-Wear" that made its debut advertising the film I, Robot
.
professional basketball
player Rasheed Wallace
rejected an offer from advertising firm Fifty Rubies Marketing to wear a tattoo advertising a candy company's product. However, a month later, the cheerleaders for Lincoln Lightning's
High Voltage Dance Team wore 2-inch by 4-inch temporary tattoos ("tadoos") that advertised local companies on their bare midriffs. In September 2001, a prominent online casino
paid boxer
Bernard Hopkins
US$100,000 to wear a temporary tattoo on his back during his championship fight with Félix Trinidad
, making him the first athlete to wear a tattoo advertisement during a professional sports event. Six months later, the company did the same to participants in the television show Celebrity Boxing
.
The company's efforts drew immediate criticism from consumer watchdog groups. Despite this, the move was successful, with the casino's web site traffic increasing 200% after the airing of the show. The company has since followed up with temporary tattoos on a topless woman at the 2003 U.S. Open
and a streaker
who ran at the 2003 French Open
as well as the 2003 UEFA Cup
final.
The first person to have permanent tattoo for advertising purposes was a 22-year-old named Jim Nelson, who in 2003 sold the space on the back of his head to CI Host, a web hosting service
for $7,000. In the first six months after its application, the tattoo drew in 500 new customers for the company. In 2005, Andrew Fischer gained worldwide notoriety for auctioning his forehead space on eBay
for temporary tattoo advertising, with the final bid coming in at $37,375 for thirty days' worth. Since then, tattoo advertising has become relatively popular, with a number of companies offering such services, and even large companies like Toyota having used it. However, The Globe and Mail
reported that there were more people selling parts of their body for advertising than there were buyers.
software, Microsoft
employed a "human billboard" which was a performance art
piece reminiscent of Cirque du Soleil
. In this event, people were suspended along the side of a building and moved banners across a backdrop, creating the Vista logo in the process.
Tattoo
A tattoo is made by inserting indelible ink into the dermis layer of the skin to change the pigment. Tattoos on humans are a type of body modification, and tattoos on other animals are most commonly used for identification purposes...
ed on the body. Sign holders are known as human directionals in the advertising industry, or colloquially as sign walkers, sign wavers, sign twirlers or (in British territories) sandwich men. Frequently, they will spin or dance
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
or wear costumes with the promotional sign in order to attract attention
Attention
Attention is the cognitive process of paying attention to one aspect of the environment while ignoring others. Attention is one of the most intensely studied topics within psychology and cognitive neuroscience....
.
History
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, the practice began when advertising posters became subject to a tax
Tax
To tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law. Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities...
and competition for wall space became fierce. Prince Pückler-Muskau
Hermann von Pückler-Muskau
Prince was a German nobleman, who was an excellent artist in landscape gardening and wrote widely appreciated books, mostly about his travels in Europe and Northern Africa, published under the pen name of "Semilasso".- Life :He was born at Muskau Castle in Upper Lusatia, then ruled by...
described the activity in 1820s London as such:
The banning of posters from private property in London in 1839 greatly increased the use of human billboards. Besides holding signs, some human billboards would wear sandwich board
Sandwich board
A sandwich board is a type of advertisement composed of two boards and being either:*Carried by a person, with one board in front and one behind, creating a "sandwich" effect; or...
s. Charles Dickens described the advertisers as "a piece of human flesh between two slices of paste board". As the novelty of seeing humans carrying placards wore off, advertisers would come up with variations on the theme in order to catch the eye, such as having a "parade" of identical human billboards, or having the human billboards wear outrageous costumes.
Modern times
Arrow
An arrow is a shafted projectile that is shot with a bow. It predates recorded history and is common to most cultures.An arrow usually consists of a shaft with an arrowhead attached to the front end, with fletchings and a nock at the other.- History:...
s in order to direct traffic to the location being advertised. Eye Shot, a Lake Forest, California
Lake Forest, California
Lake Forest is a city in Orange County, California. The population was 77,264 at the 2010 census.Lake Forest incorporated as a city on December 20, 1991. Prior to a vote of the residents in that year, the community had formerly been known as El Toro since the 1880s...
company claims to have invented modern sign spinning using arrow-shaped signs. The modern human directional employs a number of tricks to attract attention, such as spinning the sign on one finger, throwing it up in the air and spinning it, or even riding the sign like a horse. Another California company, AArrow Advertising, conducts "boot camps
Training camp
A training camp is a place, usually with an army-camp-type environment, where people go to learn skills, usually skills involving physical action rather than book subjects, usually for an armed force or an action sport...
" to train its employees, and has also filed patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
applications for a number of its "signature moves".
However, the use of such attention-grabbing tricks has been criticized by city officials as being distracting
Distracted driving
Distracted driving, a replacement phrase for the more popular terms "texting while driving" and "talking while driving," is what occurs when a driver has something other than driving on his mind. Driving becomes subsequent in importance to another activity that is happening inside the car, truck...
to drivers, and as a result, a number of cities have banned sign twirling. Some companies like Enlarge Media Group and Jet Media are able to offer human directionals as "sign walkers", a less distracting form of sign twirling. Further restrictions on sign walkers in Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
caused Jet Media Promotions, the state's largest supplier of human billboards, to sue the city of Scottsdale
Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2010 the population of the city was 217,385...
. The company's owner then successfully campaigned for legislation
Legislation
Legislation is law which has been promulgated by a legislature or other governing body, or the process of making it...
that made it illegal for cities in Arizona to ban such advertising.
Demand for human directionals has significantly increased since the introduction of sign-twirling techniques. In temperate and warm locations, sign holders can be employed year-round and their effectiveness has been amply demonstrated. For example, during the month of October 2006, nearly 8% of the 3,600 people who visited model homes in a housing development in Moreno Valley, California
Moreno Valley, California
Moreno Valley is a city located in Riverside County, California.A relatively young city, its rapid growth in the 1980s and the first decade of the 21st century made it second-largest city in Riverside County by population, and one of the Inland Empire's population centers. As of the 2010 census,...
were directed there by human directionals. The Entertainment Factory in Florida provides human directionals to several successful businesses in Central Florida. Some use them as their sole form of advertising. Naturally, there are concerns that just as in 19th-century London, as human directionals become more and more commonplace, their effectiveness will be diminished.
In the U.S., independent tax preparers, and some tax-preparation chains, use sign wavers in costume, seasonally near the US personal income tax deadline of April 15. The costumes are usually Statue of Liberty
Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886...
or Uncle Sam
Uncle Sam
Uncle Sam is a common national personification of the American government originally used during the War of 1812. He is depicted as a stern elderly man with white hair and a goatee beard...
costumes. This seems to be a recent, 21st-century trend and is becoming common and competitive.
Sign wavers are also commonly used in the U.S. for Halloween stores, which are only temporary and relocate each year, and thus do not have permanent store signs, nor time to gradually build a customer base
Customer base
The customer base is the group of customers and/or consumers that a business serves. In the most situations, a large part of this group is made up of repeat customers with a high ratio of purchase over time. These customers are the main source of consumer spending...
by word of mouth
Word of mouth
Word of mouth, or viva voce, is the passing of information from person to person by oral communication. Storytelling is the oldest form of word-of-mouth communication where one person tells others of something, whether a real event or something made up. Oral tradition is cultural material and...
, or by being shown on web mapping
Web mapping
Web mapping is the process of designing, implementing, generating and delivering maps on the World Wide Web and its product. While web mapping primarily deals with technological issues, web cartography additionally studies theoretic aspects: the use of web maps, the evaluation and optimization of...
services. These human billboards often wear a Halloween costume
Halloween costume
Halloween costumes are costumes worn on or around Halloween, a festival which falls on October 31. The Halloween costume has a fairly short history. Wearing costumes has long been associated with other holidays around the time of Halloween, even Christmas...
supplied by the store.
Clothing
Advertising on clothing has also long been used, with T-shirtT-shirt
A T-shirt is a style of shirt. A T-shirt is buttonless and collarless, with short sleeves and frequently a round neck line....
s being extremely popular. At first, T-shirts were used exclusively as undergarment
Undergarment
Undergarments or underwear are clothes worn under other clothes, often next to the skin. They keep outer garments from being soiled by bodily secretions and discharges, shape the body, and provide support for parts of it. In cold weather, long underwear is sometimes worn to provide additional...
s, but as early as the 1930s, they were already used for advertising, with a 1939 The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
promotional shirt being a prized collector's item today. The 1948 United States presidential campaign featured a T-shirt with "Dew It for Dewey", referring to candidate Thomas Dewey
Thomas Dewey
Thomas Edmund Dewey was the 47th Governor of New York . In 1944 and 1948, he was the Republican candidate for President, but lost both times. He led the liberal faction of the Republican Party, in which he fought conservative Ohio Senator Robert A. Taft...
, which is now housed in the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
. T-shirts have since been used to advertise all different kinds of products, services, and political messages.
The newest trend is to have moving pictures on clothing. The first instance of this was done at the 2003 Rugby World Cup
Rugby World Cup
The Rugby World Cup is an international rugby union competition organised by the International Rugby Board and held every four years since 1987....
, where "Telstra girls" wore T-shirt
T-shirt
A T-shirt is a style of shirt. A T-shirt is buttonless and collarless, with short sleeves and frequently a round neck line....
s outfitted with a small television screen and a DVD player
DVD player
A DVD player is a device that plays discs produced under both the DVD-Video and DVD-Audio technical standards, two different and incompatible standards. These devices were invented in 1997 and continue to thrive...
, called "TelePAKs". This was duplicated in the United States in 2004 with "Adver-Wear" that made its debut advertising the film I, Robot
I, Robot (film)
I, Robot is a 2004 science-fiction action film directed by Alex Proyas. The screenplay was written by Jeff Vintar, Akiva Goldsman and Hillary Seitz, and is very loosely based on Isaac Asimov's short-story collection of the same name. Will Smith stars in the lead role of the film as Detective Del...
.
Tattoos
In 1999, Vibe magazine predicted that companies in the next millennium would pay people to get tattoos advertising their brands. In March 2001, AmericanUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
professional basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
player Rasheed Wallace
Rasheed Wallace
Rasheed Abdul Wallace is a retired American professional basketball power forward and center who played from 1995 to 2010 in the National Basketball Association...
rejected an offer from advertising firm Fifty Rubies Marketing to wear a tattoo advertising a candy company's product. However, a month later, the cheerleaders for Lincoln Lightning's
Lincoln Capitols
The Lincoln Capitols were a professional indoor football team that played their home games at Pershing Auditorium in Lincoln, Nebraska, United States. They originally planned on becoming the Nebraska Knockout, but the name was scrapped. From 1999 to 2000, they were the Lincoln Lightning of the...
High Voltage Dance Team wore 2-inch by 4-inch temporary tattoos ("tadoos") that advertised local companies on their bare midriffs. In September 2001, a prominent online casino
Online casino
Online casinos, also known as virtual casinos or Internet casinos, are online versions of traditional casinos. Online casinos enable gamblers to play and wager on casino games through the Internet....
paid boxer
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
Bernard Hopkins
Bernard Hopkins
Bernard Hopkins Jr, known as The Executioner is an American boxer and the current Ring Magazine and WBC light heavyweight champion...
US$100,000 to wear a temporary tattoo on his back during his championship fight with Félix Trinidad
Félix Trinidad
Félix 'Tito' Trinidad, Jr. is a Puerto Rican professional boxer, considered one of the best in Puerto Rico's history. After winning five National Amateur Championships in Puerto Rico, he debuted as a professional when he was 17. He won his first world championship when he defeated Maurice Blocker...
, making him the first athlete to wear a tattoo advertisement during a professional sports event. Six months later, the company did the same to participants in the television show Celebrity Boxing
Celebrity Boxing
Celebrity Boxing was a FOX television show, in which celebrities whose careers and/or notoriety had diminished were pitted against each other in exhibition boxing matches. The contestants wore headgear during the fights, which were scheduled for three rounds apiece...
.
The company's efforts drew immediate criticism from consumer watchdog groups. Despite this, the move was successful, with the casino's web site traffic increasing 200% after the airing of the show. The company has since followed up with temporary tattoos on a topless woman at the 2003 U.S. Open
U.S. Open (golf)
The United States Open Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual open golf tournament of the United States. It is the second of the four major championships in golf, and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour...
and a streaker
Streaker
Streaker may refer to:* Someone who engages in streaking, purposely appearing and running nude in public* Streaker , a sailing dinghy* Streaker , a 1987 computer game published by Bulldog...
who ran at the 2003 French Open
French Open (tennis)
The French Open |Roland Garros]]) is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks between late May and early June in Paris, France, at the Stade Roland Garros. It is the premier clay court tennis tournament in the world and the second of the four annual Grand Slam tournaments – the other three are...
as well as the 2003 UEFA Cup
UEFA Cup
The UEFA Europa League is an annual association football cup competition organised by UEFA since 1971 for eligible European football clubs. It is the second most prestigious European club football contest after the UEFA Champions League...
final.
The first person to have permanent tattoo for advertising purposes was a 22-year-old named Jim Nelson, who in 2003 sold the space on the back of his head to CI Host, a web hosting service
Web hosting service
A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their own website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own or lease for use by their clients as well as providing Internet...
for $7,000. In the first six months after its application, the tattoo drew in 500 new customers for the company. In 2005, Andrew Fischer gained worldwide notoriety for auctioning his forehead space on eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
for temporary tattoo advertising, with the final bid coming in at $37,375 for thirty days' worth. Since then, tattoo advertising has become relatively popular, with a number of companies offering such services, and even large companies like Toyota having used it. However, The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
reported that there were more people selling parts of their body for advertising than there were buyers.
Other
For the launch of its Windows VistaWindows Vista
Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
software, Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
employed a "human billboard" which was a performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
piece reminiscent of Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil , is a Canadian entertainment company, self-described as a "dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment." Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy...
. In this event, people were suspended along the side of a building and moved banners across a backdrop, creating the Vista logo in the process.