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June 19, 2006 12:03 AM

Broken: Speedway tower ad

SpeedwayA reader sends in a picture taken in Joilet, Illinois:

I am certain that there is supposed to be a visible ad on the garbled screen of this speedway tower.

Comments:

First

Long live technology.

Posted by: Edward at June 19, 2006 12:23 AM

Second!

Looks like someone didn't tell the programmer that the ad is supposed to be shown to the outside world, not to the inside of the tower.

Posted by: Ilya Smirnov at June 19, 2006 12:30 AM

Third, I love RSS.

Wow, It looks like a bird landed inside and made a new connection to a pixels that don't exist.

Posted by: Cameron at June 19, 2006 12:33 AM

Whatever it is it's trademarked. If you look closely you can see the TM. I hope they get a refund on their advertising time. Most certainly broken.

Posted by: lefty-chef at June 19, 2006 12:56 AM

Lots of billboard signs do this, rotate to display 2 or 3 different messages. Anyone could have snapped this picture whilst the sign was in mid-change. So, this is possibly not broken.

Posted by: Baba O'Reily at June 19, 2006 01:33 AM

Subliminal advertising caught on film

Posted by: dick at June 19, 2006 01:50 AM

Baba I agree completely. This billboard is not an electronic display. Its a billboard made of several panels that rotate to display different ads. This picture as mentioned by Baba can be easily taken in mid-transition. Sorry but I have to go with not broken

Posted by: Tool at June 19, 2006 03:25 AM

If the ad was working I doubt someone would have sent it in. I'm guessing either it got stuck halfway, or all the slots are out of sync.

Posted by: creativename at June 19, 2006 03:57 AM

Cant be too sure with some of the latest entries that have been submitted to TIB

Posted by: infinity306 at June 19, 2006 03:58 AM

"Baba I agree completely. This billboard is not an electronic display. Its a billboard made of several panels that rotate to display different ads. This picture as mentioned by Baba can be easily taken in mid-transition. Sorry but I have to go with not broken"

Yeah.. that is a pretty good point that was made, I'm still going for broken, though. Likely it's a burned out motor or the sign got jammed.

Posted by: WiglyWorm at June 19, 2006 04:23 AM

is it broken, or has it been fixed, to transform a peice of dull advertising into an interesting and thought provoking display.

Discus: does this make it art?

Posted by: pi at June 19, 2006 05:30 AM

An important user-experience lesson: Don't make things that break.

Got it.

Posted by: Sean at June 19, 2006 08:40 AM

Clearly there is something messed up here because you can see one registered mark is upside down.

Posted by: yobot at June 19, 2006 09:19 AM

It doesn't look like it's "in transition" to me, as all the slats typically turn at the same time.

However, I'd venture that it's likely that the business being advertised decided not to renew its contract, and no one else has (yet) decided to advertise in that spot. Since the owner of the billboard doesn't want to give away free advertising, they garbled the sign.

Billboard companies do that all the time here in Nevada (where the orange cone is the state flower and the billboard is the state bird).

Posted by: karen at June 19, 2006 09:24 AM

The sign may be "broken", but I don't really think it makes it "broken"....you get what i'm saying?

Posted by: Reader at June 19, 2006 10:31 AM

Not Broken!

This is a billboard from Microsoft's new advertising campaign. Rather than hire an ad agency, they decided to let their programmers come up with a campaign---this is their first effort.

Quite effectively conveys the essence of Microsoft products, don't you think?

Posted by: spooly at June 19, 2006 10:58 AM

Are you kidding? A broken sign? Damn if I knew that's all it took to get on TIB, I'd take a picture of the dozens of broken signs I see everywhere.

I think I saw a STOP sign with some spray paint on it. Does that count?

Posted by: Manni at June 19, 2006 11:54 AM

no that doesn't count, however, a stop sign with "no stopping an all times" below it does count!

Posted by: alexander at June 19, 2006 02:47 PM

Or a 'No Outlet' sign right below a 'One Way, Do "Not Enter' sign.

Posted by: Humpty dumpty sat on a wall, humpty dumpty had a great fall. at June 19, 2006 03:48 PM

"Clearly there is something messed up here because you can see one registered mark is upside down."

This is an interesting point. But there's actually 2 that are upside down (the white on blue one in the upper middle, and the black on yellow in the lower left-ish). Maybe it was part of the design? Either way, this sort of makes for a fun (if broken) "I Spy" game...

Posted by: ambrocked at June 19, 2006 05:57 PM

I think it's sort-of broken, the registered marks are a good point, but I think it's not REALLY broken!

NOT (really) BROKEN, PEOPLE!!!

Posted by: Another guy named Alex B at June 19, 2006 11:28 PM

When I wnet to England I saw some of these. They aren't great. The motor system is delicate, and the ads (because they're on strips) constantly peel off. Also, it could be out of sync. I say broken because the owner hasn't noticed.

Posted by: Fox at June 20, 2006 12:32 AM

What a good way to collect money.

MANAGER: "Sure, we put your ad up. You never said it couldn't be with 3 other ads."

Posted by: someone at June 20, 2006 05:31 PM

"However, I'd venture that it's likely that the business being advertised decided not to renew its contract, and no one else has (yet) decided to advertise in that spot. Since the owner of the billboard doesn't want to give away free advertising, they garbled the sign." great point Karen.

Also some business have gotten into the practice of advertising upside-down to draw attention. This habit is not broken, just lame.

Posted by: tool at June 20, 2006 06:43 PM

LAST!!!

Posted by: LAST at June 22, 2006 01:00 AM

LAST!!!

Posted by: LAST at June 22, 2006 01:03 AM

Not anymore

Posted by: chris at June 22, 2006 11:29 PM

What's the deal with the "LAST" posts?

Oh Yeah, LAST!

Posted by: Last-est at June 29, 2006 06:15 AM

broken, but such an add would catch a lot of attention, and leave people puzzled what was about and whose this add might be ... may be it is a marketing trick. but broken for me/

Posted by: Gordonii at September 11, 2006 04:38 PM

If the company's name was readable, they would be getting a lot of attention right now.

Posted by: TIBE4ME at September 16, 2006 11:11 PM

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