In case you weren’t aware, LMP died the other day. Yesterday I had occasion to drive down 2 major Chicago area expressways - The Eisenhower and 294. Both of them had numerous electronic billboards, simply stating her name and the dates of her birth and death on a black background.
Did anyone else notice those? Does anyone have an idea of who paid for those billboards? I don’t readily recall any similar billboards for any other celebrities following their deaths.
I didn’t even realize she was a celebrity. I knew she was the Pelvis’s kid, and she married Michael Jackson, and then no awareness of her until the death notices.
Yeah - all I knew of her was a faint recollection of her short-lived celeb marriages, and some substance abuse.
But these billboards almost challenged the hair restoration ones (a reference any Chicago driver of the tri-state will understand!) Someone had to contract and pay for these signs. Anyone see them in any other markets?
Aside from family, why would anyone care to put it on a billboard? Of all the “who are they” billboard celebrities, she’s the second “who are they-ist”, behind Angelyne. (who will now and forever be number 1)
I suspect that any celebrity, even the minor ones, has a group of fervent fans; all it takes is one fervent fan with a bunch of cash. But, in this case, it may be less about Lisa Marie, and more about her late father – Elvis still has a ton of fans, and the billboards might well have been purchased by an Elvis fan.
I’m in the Boston area, and I saw one for Pele recently. I was wondering if the billboard company might have arranged for it on their own; maybe they had some excess time that they hadn’t been able to sell, or just wanted to get people talking about them.
Well. The movie Get Shorty includes multiple shots of Angelyne billboards, but I did not know they were a real thing.
As for who would put up Lisa Marie billboards (other than family), I think some Presley fans have a special level of crazy. Similar to fans of the former president or akin to early Beatlemania, but more enduring. Putting up billboards would be unsurprising.
Indeed, until she died no one seemed to give a damn about her. Now the tabloids are acting like it’s Armageddon. Sorry she died, but she was known mainly for whom she was having sex with.
It’s common for fan clubs, especially the really big ones, to rent billboards promoting their idols. Here’s one article:
Hmm - I don’t recall seeing one for Pele - or any other previous celebs. Driving the one road I saw 1 in each direction. Driving longer not he other road, I saw at least 10 total.
Your idea of filling extra space seems plausible, but I can’t recall other “fillers” on the electronic billboards.
When Prince died, the Twin Cities had a number of tribute billboards. I think it was the billboard companies that paid for them; they were so notable that they were like advertising for the billboards themselves.
I saw a couple for Pele in the Chicago area a couple of weeks ago (i.e., immediately after he’d died).
I guess I tend to only be on the expressways on the weekends. Not sure when Pele died, but the billboards might be relatively short-lived.
I’ve seen billboards advertising open positions for billboard installers. Not filler, exactly, but amusingly self-referential.
I don’t really know what the economics are for billboard companies these days. I still see plenty of the old, permanent (you know what I mean) types; they show one ad for a month (or whatever) and require some labor to change. The video ones must cost more originally, but can rotate among different ads and don’t cost anything to change. I don’t know what happens if they don’t sell all their available time; maybe they could show a weather forecast or dad jokes.
I heard some of her “music.” It was auto-tuned to the max.
She was the Elvis version of Sean Lennon; yeah, I heard some of his output too. He looks like his father, and inherited his mother’s musical ability.
I’ve seen electronic billboards showing weather info, and “Have a Nice Day”-style messages, as well as ads for the billboard company itself; I suspect that all of those are filler for when they have open spots in that board’s rotation.
A quick dip into Google suggests that a Chicago electronic billboard runs about $420 a week for “quarter slots” (one display every four minutes), $840 for half-slots or $1680 for a slot every minute. That actually seems surprisingly affordable and well within the reach of some super-fan or fan group.
Wow!?! That’s it. I was wondering as for the last two weeks I’ve been seeing a billboard for someone who just made partner at a law firm and was wondering … wow, they must’ve spent a pretty penny for that! But at $420 a week for a quarter slot (and this one was either a quarter or a half), I’d rent that out to say whatever bullshit I feel like for the week. “Emus are the secret to happiness” and keep them commuters on the Stevenson perplexed.
That’s another nice thing about Hawaii. Billboards in any way, shape or form are outlawed and have been from early on. Always a little odd to see them when I go to the mainland.