Isn't it ironic?

We're in the middle of the "Year of Alabama Outdoors" promotion from the Alabama Bureau of Travel and Tourism and they decide to run a billboard campaign - no, it doesn't make much sense to me either. The billboards are to promote American Idol winners from Alabama. OK, that's nice, except the thousands of people (contestants and family) who we're expecting in August for AI tryouts are a) already coming here and b) most likely familiar with our winners.

What's the point of using an advertising medium that's designed to distract people from the scenery? Don't we want people to think we have a nice state? Don't we want them to come back sometime? It seems it would be a lot better to catch visitors at the welcome centers, give them some stuff they can take home with them, buy ads in magazines, and when they visit the state just let them see it.

This proves something we in the scenic movement have been saying for a while: billboards are not traveler information any longer, no matter what the corporations that sell billboards try to say. They are giant-sized ads and the visual equivalent of a telemarketer calling you at dinnertime. They might advertise something good, like home-grown talent, or they might advertise something not so good, like casinos or topless bars. But at the end of the day (or the drive) they're still just big ol' ads. Litter on a stick, if you will.

The agency that's in charge of promoting our state (and I love you guys, you know that!) shouldn't be using a method that by its very nature makes our state look trashy. [It's a lot of money for something that only a few people will see and fewer will remember. ] Update 8/10/06: According to a news brief from the Birmingham Business Journal, these billboards were donated. They're still bad.