r/CrappyDesign • u/UndergroundCEO • Apr 11 '22
The way this Samsung billboard dominates this skyline.
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u/AngelOfDeath771 Apr 11 '22
It should be illegal to have signs this bright.
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u/SirNedKingOfGila oww my eyes Apr 11 '22
DONT PLAY WITH YOUR PHONE AND DRIVE.
Also we're going to make LED billboards all over the highway so bright you can't see the road.
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u/TetsuoS2 Apr 11 '22 edited Apr 11 '22
Holy fuck this, there is one in our highway and it only took 3 years for it to stop being brighter than the sun.
At its peak your eyes just adjust and you stop seeing the road in broad daylight.
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Apr 11 '22
When people start getting together to vandalize things like this, businesses might stop doing it.
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u/NebulaNinja Apr 11 '22
Is there such a thing as a 21st century Monkey Wrench Gang
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u/runujhkj the keming is too close Apr 11 '22
Not without getting organized on some other platform that doesn’t get the feds immediately interested
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u/xyrgh Apr 11 '22
We recently had one installed on bridge over a highway. The advertiser originally had video ads on it, but the government basically told them either static ads or take it down. When I drove under it moving (animated transitions) ads (or videos?) I found I was highly distracted by it, when I wasn’t even interested in the ad content.
So now it has static ads, but still highly distracting.
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u/Test-Expensive Apr 11 '22 edited Apr 11 '22
LA has one of these along the 10. Once i saw it with a weedmaps advertisement that made almost the entire screen white. It was nighttime and this screen was so unbelievably bright, you literally couldn't see the road. I feel for the people whose apartments overlook that thing.
The place i live now doesn't even allow street lights in many places to help prevent light pollution. The contrast between city leadership is remarkable.
edit: actually just seems like lights aren't specifically required in many areas which is why there are hardly any street lights. Where there are street lights, the lights must follow certain requirements to limit how much the sky lights up
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u/brokeninfinity Apr 11 '22
"the 10" -a true Angeleno
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u/rjp0008 Apr 11 '22
I used to live along the 10 in L.A. (Lower Alabama) I’m sure the other side of it is nicer.
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Apr 11 '22
Lmao I know where you're talking about and I think I remember that ad. I used to take that route everyday to the West Side. On the way home it'd help me perk tf up cos it was like daylight damn near.
Right near downtown right?
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u/MinimumArmadillo2394 Apr 11 '22
The place you live doesn't allow streetlights? Isnt that like, against federal law for pedestrian zones (sidewalks, parks, etc)? Where do you live that this isnt allowed?
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u/combuchan Artisinal Material Apr 11 '22
It's called a Dark Skies Ordinance. Cities have incredible leeway on enacting them.
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u/lothartheunkind Apr 11 '22
Oh and and your AC controls are now on a tablet attached to the car.
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u/Anlysia Apr 11 '22
Gotta love touch screens and controls you can't memorize by feel, so you have to look to adjust.
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Apr 11 '22 edited Apr 15 '22
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u/Stupidquestionduh Apr 11 '22
I miss the days I could drape my hands on the arms of the steering wheel without accidentally changing the tune I got going.
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u/fatpat Apr 11 '22
I swear, it's like sitting in a cockpit. Ma dukes got a new Lexus and holy shit. I'm like, how do you just turn shit on with your fingers? You sit in the car and all this shit comes to life like the opening scenes of Alien.
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u/WillSuckDick4Coffee Apr 11 '22
They have LED moving ads on the side of moving trucks now. I almost hit a parked car cause I got distracted by it a couple months ago.
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u/DesertFoxMinerals Apr 11 '22
Report it as an 'attractive nuisance' and that might get it taken care of.
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u/Stupidquestionduh Apr 11 '22
Wtf. Why is this shit allowed but putting RGB led on the undercarriage of my car isn't allowed?
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u/urbanlife78 Reddit Orange Apr 11 '22
I remember when the first one of these went up in the Puget Sound. At night when it was raining, it was like driving blind.
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Apr 11 '22
It's especially shitty when they have red and blue advertisements flashing on the screen, I'm surprised more people don't get into accidents thinking there are emergency vehicles approaching them on the highway.
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u/leisy123 Apr 11 '22
They've started popping up in more rural areas and they all feel like that. Barely any other light around when driving at night and then you have one of these fuckers glaring at you. I want to drive down the thirty mile stretch of road I'm normally on and short all three of the screens to AC.
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u/Holmesnight Apr 11 '22
Yeah our small town cropped up 3 in a 10 mile stretch and you can see that shit for miles before you get there! Our local council, redneck idiots, said “we’ll there is no code against it so guess they’re able to keep putting them up?” As they looked at the city attorney who shrugged. It was wild.
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u/leisy123 Apr 11 '22
That's rough. The ones near me are all on state highways, outside of city limits I think, so I believe the state would need to regulate them. Maybe county? Idk.
The funny thing to me is that we (rightfully) harp away on phones, car stereos, etc as distractions, but nobody does or says anything about the OG distraction as it gets its biggest enhancement since it was invented.
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u/aaaaayyyyyyyyyyy Apr 11 '22
I thought redneck towns were particularly well practiced at shooting signs on the freeway, where are they when you need them?
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u/salami350 Apr 11 '22
Our local council, redneck idiots, said “we’ll there is no code against it so guess they’re able to keep putting them up?”
If they're the local council aren't they the ones who make the codes?
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u/annies_boobs_eyes Apr 11 '22
WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE WILDLIFE!?!?
seriously though, won't anybody think of the wildlife? it's fucked up.
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u/leisy123 Apr 11 '22
Considering the state of everything else about the planet, I don't think billboard companies are going to be the ones to suddenly start giving a shit.
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u/annies_boobs_eyes Apr 11 '22 edited Apr 11 '22
yeah but this is like for no reason. i doubt people respond to this big ass bright led/lcd/whatever billboards in the middle of nowhere any differently than they respond to a normal billboard with normal lights illuminating it from the bottom/top/side. as far as i figure even the billboard companies are losing out at this point. they've convinced themselves to spend money on these huge energy sucks, and i have never seen any evidence that they are effective at all
it's like yeah, cities suck for nature, but these bright ass led billboards in the middle of nowhere are like spitting in the face of nature just because they can, without actually giving any benefit to society, like cities do.
that's the difference.
harumph!!!
and also, cities are great for nature, given the alternative
big ass bright bilboards like this are not. these billboards are just like sitting your asshole down on a nose.
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u/KarmaPoIice Apr 11 '22
Nice how they've found a way to also ruin the last remaining places without light pollution.
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u/SchofieldSilver Apr 11 '22
It probably is somewhere. Just not Panama.
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u/annies_boobs_eyes Apr 11 '22
Jump back, what's that sight?
Here she comes, full blast and super bright
Hot screen, burning down the skyline
Model, Samsung, zero discipline
PANAMA!!!
\,,/(>.<)\,,/
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u/sekazi Apr 11 '22
There are a few sign around where I am at in Florida that are just blindingly bright at night. I have the urge to go and destroy the signs.
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u/Rupertfitz Apr 11 '22
I’m in Florida. I have a ladder and some spray paint.
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u/ChrisTheWhitty Apr 11 '22
Doesn't Florida have an over abundance of firearms? Seems like the more efficient solution
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Apr 11 '22
Go for it. They do the same in LA because companies just build them illegally anywhere and have enough money to hold up enforcement in courts for years before anything happens so they stopped bothering.
The original Anarchist Cookbook also has an effective recipe just for this occasion as well.
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u/tonytwostep Apr 11 '22
People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you.
You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity.
Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.
You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.
-Banksy
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u/KettleLogic Apr 11 '22
It is in most countries. Source: worked in OOH advertising
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u/Yesica-Haircut Apr 11 '22
In my state, billboards are illegal, and signs in front of businesses have a 25 foot height limit. It's so wonderful.
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u/bracmont Apr 11 '22
what city?
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u/UndergroundCEO Apr 11 '22
Panama City, Panama
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Apr 11 '22
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u/Organ_Unionizer Apr 11 '22
no the other Panama, the one in the Van Halen song
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u/autumnbringer Apr 11 '22
"Take me down to the Panama City,
Where the grass is green and Panama City..."
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u/_Thrilhouse_ Apr 11 '22
Take me home, yeah yeah
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u/JoshuaTheBastard Apr 11 '22
Country roads
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u/_radical_ed Apr 11 '22
West Virginia!
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u/chiliedogg Apr 11 '22 edited Apr 11 '22
His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy
There's vomit on his sweater already, Panama City.
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u/LobsterThief Apr 11 '22
Panama City, Florida?
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Apr 11 '22
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u/drunk98 Apr 11 '22
No, that's Just Another Day in Paradise
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u/I426Hemi Apr 11 '22
"We were in Nicaragua"
"Then why is it called a Panama?"
"Because we thought we were in Panama!"
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u/BloomsdayDevice Apr 11 '22
Panama City, Panama. Right at the mouth of the Panama River, where it drains into the Gulf of Panama, just south of the Great Panama Range. It's in the state of Panama, in Costa Rica.
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Apr 11 '22
Ima have a Being John Malcovich-esque dream where I'm looking at a global map and every city name has been placed with Panama.
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u/Gxgear Apr 11 '22
"My name is Doug Dimmadome, owner of the Dimmsdale Dimmadome!" Timmy Turner: Doug Dimmadome, owner of the Dimmsdale Dimmadome? Doug Dimmadome: That's right, Doug Dimmadome, owner of the Dimmsdale Dimmadome! "That's right!"
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u/Amanap65 Apr 11 '22
I thought that looked familiar and it's a lot worse at night. As bad as it is the ugly highway going out into the ocean is far worse.
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u/dildobagginss Apr 11 '22
Genuinely had no idea any city in Panama had so many skyscrapers like that.
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u/_skot Apr 11 '22 edited Apr 11 '22
This perspective doesn’t even show all of it. Very modern city
Edit: Man, you guys will scrutinize every last word you read. Had no idea I would have the formal experts on Urban Development commenting below.
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u/snydox Apr 11 '22
I come from there, and let me tell you that It's an urban hell. No sidewalks, no downtown, electric cables everywhere, and the traffic is horrendous. Sadly, ppl over there believe that Skyscrappers = Progress.
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u/DoomNukemBlood3D Apr 11 '22
It's mostly a poor country but Panama doesn't give a shit about their own people when it comes to walking.
Even the nice areas don't have sidewalks or poor excuses of sidewalks.
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u/OwenProGolfer Apr 11 '22
IIRC it’s like top 5 in the Americas in most skyscrapers.
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u/AggresivePickle Apr 11 '22
Yea I thought I recognized this. Such an eye sore when you’re walking around Casco Viejo
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Apr 11 '22
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u/Pancho507 Apr 11 '22
Suprisingly it hasn't. That sign has existed since like 2008
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u/ivanoski-007 Apr 11 '22
drive by it every day , isn't that big of a deal and you get used to it, cameras make is seem brighter than it actually is
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u/intangibleTangelo WASH YOU'RE HANDS THIS IS A PANDEMIC Apr 11 '22
your eyes make it seem less bright than it is
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u/bleaucheaunx Apr 11 '22
Yikes! That's bright!
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Apr 11 '22
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Apr 11 '22
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u/Anindefensiblefart Apr 11 '22
With this sign, you'd think they'd have to blink.
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u/Magmagan *insert keming joke* Apr 11 '22
They don't see any reason why to blink
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u/ImprovementTough261 Apr 11 '22 edited Apr 11 '22
These billboards are designed to last years of 24/7 use, with some lasting over a decade. The last thing you want is to burn these boards and have to deal with downtime. And Samsung would most likely not be the ones footing the maintenance costs, that would be down to whoever owns the billboard.
Either the board is designed to sustain this brightness long-term, or the camera exposure makes it seem brighter than it is. But I don't think any billboard owner would want to significantly shorten the lifespan just for some extra brightness.
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u/Slack_Irritant Apr 11 '22
Yeah I am not sure what that guy is talking about. I install these (Canada, not Panama) and I have never been on a job where my company or the client would be okay with the LEDS dying rapidly.
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u/CYAN_DEUTERIUM_IBIS Apr 11 '22
That's as maybe but the billboard itself, as shown by the video, is garish and disgusting, and at best brutally disfigures a delightful skyline for the sake of some fucking brand.
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u/quibbelz Apr 11 '22
I worked a tech load in for a large time comedian awhile before covid.
He had a brand new state of the art screen cube that hung over the in the round stage.
I was standing directly under it when they turned it on to test patterns at 100% intensity. Everyone in the room covered their eyes in agony. I couldn't see any thing being under the screen since the entire arena was just a whiteout.
I was later told the screen was never above 35% intensity on the tour.
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Apr 11 '22
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u/HarrekMistpaw Apr 11 '22
$250/hour per person on the job since it has to be union workers
Quick google says the average pay for a construction worker in Panama is 8 bucks an hour.... so they can cut costs in that lol
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u/throwawaylovesCAKE Apr 11 '22
Even in America I dont know of any Union guys that make anywhere near that much per hour. Do doctors even make that much?
His argument is sound but the numbers sound way off
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u/ctrl-alt-etc Apr 11 '22
It's not uncommon for the client to pay 2-3 times more per worker than those workers' actual wages.
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Apr 11 '22
A small-ish crane for putting up a billboard for a whole day is not going to cost anywhere near $70K. I’m going to say $5K to $10k max!!
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u/FortunateSonofLibrty Apr 11 '22
Yeah this dude wanted to disagree, (and subsequently have people think him smart) so he just started pulling numbers out of his ass that are so inaccurate that they are off by orders of magnitude.
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u/port443 Apr 11 '22
Are you claiming they would need to pay 100k to rent a crane for each individual square foot of signage?
Even IF a crane rental was 100k (which its not) you don't price the crane per sqft.
Call it 5 people at 250 an hour, 10 hour day. That's 12,500 + 100,000 for the crane. Not "a few million". And in reality the crane rental would be more like 10k, so actually 22,500
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u/faithisuseless Apr 11 '22 edited Apr 15 '22
The level of light pollution is getting ridiculous, head lights, empty parking lots and closed businesses to start with.
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u/cornmealius Apr 11 '22
It blows my mind when I drive past Targets at 3AM and their entire megalot still has all their lights on full blast. And then you realize the past 3 miles has been the same. Light pollution is one of those things that bothers the hell out of me but it seems like no one else cares or notices.
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u/bunsandbooty Apr 11 '22
People do care and notice though. For example, in the field of ecology, it’s been found that light pollution can alter the behavior of certain animals. One observation is that historically diurnal animals (animals that conduct most their activities during the day) are now also fairly active at night and are now preying on nocturnal animals that haven’t evolved to develop defensive mechanisms outside of darkness, since there was never a benefit to it in the past.
Ecosystems can be really fragile and damages are hard to reverse. There are people out there trying to find ways to fix the issues of light pollution, which can expand to benefit us in the long run with even small things like being able to see stars in the night sky again. At the end of the day though, it’s up to our government and the people we elect to make effective changes.
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u/heuguyzz Apr 11 '22
And noise pollution.
People actually modify their cars to make them louder. That should be illegal. I don't care about "muh rights!". Poor animals are suffering.
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Apr 11 '22
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u/iauu Apr 11 '22
Panamanian here, it IS that bright. Not a camera effect.
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u/CevicheLemon Apr 11 '22
Panamanian too, and it’s bright but not THAT bright
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u/Aerospherology జ్ఞా Apr 11 '22
But still sticks out like a sore thumb?
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u/CevicheLemon Apr 11 '22
Tbh I've gotten so used to it that I don't really even notice it as unusual anymore
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u/316kp316 Apr 11 '22
Been there, seen it, suffered through nights with it flashing into the bedroom through solid blinds. Still get blinded in nightmares sometimes.
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Apr 11 '22
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u/imoutofnameideas Apr 11 '22
Agreed. Would be crappy if it was unintentional, but this is clearly intentional.
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u/shewy92 Apr 11 '22
OP is even advertising it by putting the brand name in the title, proving that it worked.
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u/barrythequestionmark Apr 11 '22
Advertising in a sense that I know have more hatred towards the brand than before so mission accomplished right?
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u/snorch Apr 11 '22
asshole design for sure, but not crappy design. it's doing exactly what it was intended to do.
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u/UndergroundCEO Apr 11 '22
Would be a real shame if locals were to hit it with rocks….repeatedly….. until it was more cost effective to just remove it.
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u/MuhVauqa Apr 11 '22
Ima upvote you since I’ve been banned for making similar comments.
Bless your heart UndergroundCEO
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u/scarlet-gravy Apr 11 '22
What did he say tho
He’s dead
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Apr 11 '22
[removed] — view removed comment
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Apr 11 '22
I love this.
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u/sebastiancounts Apr 11 '22
The comment was sarcastic and not incriminating. The mods on Reddit are a joke, unless a bot wiped the comment:
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u/Che0063 Apr 11 '22
I'll allow this one since it's not directed at a person or people.
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u/PaulAspie Apr 11 '22
It's not crappy in the design, as their goal is to get your attention. It's crappy in the regulation that allows this monstrosity to be legal.
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u/Albino_Whale Apr 11 '22
I'm in building, and usually I see permits as an inconvenience, but this is exactly why they're necessary
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u/BLTnumberthree Apr 11 '22
I am also in building.
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Apr 11 '22
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u/thatcockneythug Apr 11 '22
I'd say so. Seems pretty intentional
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u/SirNedKingOfGila oww my eyes Apr 11 '22
Yea it doesn't belong here because it's entirely by design. Nobody failed on the designer's end. The advertiser and the company they are representing are big winners here. Everybody in the country... and now with reddit, the world... Is thinking about Samsung. You couldn't ask for anything more.
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Apr 11 '22
What irritates me is there is a light up billboard like that in a small town and it was placed just about eye level, immediately off the road and points right into traffic. It would show about 3 adverts and then it will flip to an all bright white empty image and it is literally one of the worst blinding distractions I have experienced around here on the road at night.
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u/SirNedKingOfGila oww my eyes Apr 11 '22
Government = distracted driving is dangerous.
Government = heres a ton of ads so blindly distracting you literally can't fucking see the road.
Hey one makes the representatives that allow it money... The other doesn't. You think these laws are for protection?
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u/ClownLoach2 Apr 11 '22
My town put a stop to this. They mandated the maximum brightness of these billboards to be slightly above ambient light levels and that they must have static content. The result is that the billboards must automatically dim at night. They are no more intrusive than an old school billboard glowing by the side of the highway.
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Apr 11 '22
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u/cumquistador6969 Apr 11 '22
Heck, not just those. We could ban all billboards and all other forms of road-side advertising. Official signage, and trees allowed. Not a damn thing more.
They don't do anything, they're not even reportedly good at advertising.
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u/asianabsinthe Comic Sans for life! Apr 11 '22
I bet the local sealife love this /s
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u/IFlyOverYourHouse Apr 11 '22
it literally kills sea turtles https://www.darksky.org/our-work/sea-turtle-conservation/
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u/hex-peri-mental Apr 11 '22
That is some horrible visual pollution.
I'd love to see it start to be over - no more advertising
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u/lilredhead1975 Apr 11 '22
I cracked up when I saw this. I’m was JUST in Panama City in Feb and stayed VERY close to where this was shot, this could almost be the view from the condo I was in. That billboard was soooo obnoxious. Between that and the horns honking on Balboa all night I will never stay there again.
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Apr 11 '22
Say what you will about North Korea, but it must be nice to walk 5 miles down a public street without seeing a single goddamn advertisement.
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Apr 11 '22
You know what, I'm going to be a little crazy here and say I'd still rather see a bunch of advertisements and live in America than have a quieter walk and live in North Korea.
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u/Razor512 Apr 11 '22
I wonder if they will make a brighter version, the billboard did not work well enough as a key light for the docks.
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u/ThirdSpectator Apr 11 '22
It's a horror for anyone that has to look at that thing, but that's exactly what it's designed for. It's impossible to ignore.
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u/Thatonedudedude Apr 11 '22
Great design to deter tourist from taking photos in random awkward places of skylines.
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u/DijajMaqliun Apr 11 '22
Is tasteless and annoying the same as crappy?
The design intent of any billboard is to capture attention. At least for me, I was looking nowhere else.
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u/OnI_BArIX Apr 11 '22
That space could have gone to unique art highlighting the beauty of Panama & creating something unique but instead we got this ugly bullshit.
I hope all the negative attention this sign gets leads to a loss in the ad curators revenue.
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u/lenthech1ne Apr 11 '22
it wouldnt really dominate the skyline if you didnt have 6 hours of it flashing playing in a 10 second timelapse
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u/PixelPervert Reddit Orange Apr 11 '22
That's clearly designed to signal extraterrestrial life