Talking Billboards Installed in Chinatown

Looking to reach 100,000 people in one day in downtown D.C.? For a cool $45,000 you can splash a video ad complete with audio across the three new video billboards recently installed in Chinatown. If a California advertising company called PharrisMedia wins approval, the screens may be joined by new billboards, sidewalk signs, and event banners hoping to catch the eyes of thousands of drivers and pedestrians.

The ad below captures the excitement of advertising at the busiest intersection at the heart of the nation’s “8th largest metropolitan area.”

The graphic to the left shows the proposed location for the banners and other ads on the Gallery Place Building According PharrisMedia’s circulation analysis, some 28,800 pedestrians and 71,200 vehicle passengers pass the corner each day. The screens will operate for 22 hours each day 365 days a year, showing three advertisers ads each day with 10% of the time filled with public service announcements. The additional billboards and signs, which will decorate the Gallery Place building on both H Street and 7th Street, will join a host of existing signs including the Verizon Center’s video screen (also with audio) and the cinema’s digital screen showing movie times.

If more talking billboards pop up around town I will attempt to construct a pedestrian density threshold for the uniquely pedestrian-oriented advertising medium. Combined with a new scoreboard inside and WMATA’s rotating postmodern LED Displays, it has truly become a neighborhood of simulacra and simulation.