Outdoor Advertising is economically important to communities

Outdoor advertising is a vibrant, growing $5 billion-a-year industry that offers advertising solutions for all types of businesses and charities.

While interest in the medium by national advertisers has grown steadily, outdoor is essentially a local media with small businesses accounting for 70% of total spending. Its ability to create a big brand feel with a nominal investment is one of outdoor' s strongest assets. Another is the immediacy in awareness it brings.

Local advertisers place their outdoor messages on major commuter and tourist arteries close to their businesses. For some businesses, no other advertising medium is available and-or affordable. Typically, 5 to 10 percent of jobs in a community come from businesses advertising on billboards.

Take billboards away, and three of four businesses would lose sales. How much would they lose? Nearly 20 percent of gross revenue (with devastating impacts on businesses with no affordable alternative for advertising).

Businesses advertising on billboards rate them significantly higher than other advertising media in terms of its "ability to communicate information at a price you can afford."

Annual snapshot of outdoor advertising' s impact on the economy:

• Billboard advertising costs 86% less than TV, 66% less than newspapers and 44% less than radio advertising. (Source: Media Market Resources, Inc.)
• Nationwide, 70% of billboard revenue comes from small, local businesses - billboards are the most affordable media option. (Source: Lilley)
• Three out of four businesses polled said they would lose sales if they did not have access to billboards. Those businesses estimate that sales would decrease by nearly 20%, a devastating impact to small business. (Source: Prof. Charles R. Taylor)
• One out of every 5 dollars spent by advertisers on billboards is for travel and tourism. (Source: Competitive Media Reporting)
• Over 80% of the top 191 cities in the U.S. allow billboards to be constructed - not banned. (Source: Prof. Alan Weinstein)
• 90% of auto travelers nationwide rely on billboards to locate gas, food, lodging and tourism attractions. (Source: U.S. Travel Data Center)
• 80% of the public does not favor a ban on billboards- the trend against bans has grown stronger the past 30 years. (Source: Prof. Charles R. Taylor)
• American public opinion (80%) reflects that billboards both help create jobs and help businesses attract customers. (Source: Prof. Charles R. Taylor)

$1 billion in direct payroll and benefits. $500 million in real estate lease payments. $345 million in contractual pay-ments to government entities fortransit, street furniture and other advertising. $1 billion for materials and services $300 million in public service

Outdoor Advertising is a responsible industry

OAAA Code of Principles for Billboards.
The OAAA endorses this Code of Principles for Billboards and encourages its members to operate in conformance with the following principles:

Respect the Environment

• We support billboards as a business use to be erected only in commercial and industrial areas.
• We support new billboard locations in unzoned commercial and industrial areas only where there is business activity.
• We support the construction of new billboards consistent with state and local laws except for provisions that allow stacked bulletins (i.e., two 14' x 48' faces or larger facing in the same direction)
• We seek to exclude new billboards on truly scenic segments of highways outside of commercial and industrial areas.
• We are committed to using recyclable and recycled materials whenever possible.
• We are committed to respectful control and maintenance of vegetation surrounding billboards.

Maintain a Good Working Relationship with Local Communities

• We support the right to maintain lawfully erected billboards.
• We support laws which assure just compensation for removal of legal billboards.
• We support the expeditious removal of illegally erected billboards without compensation. OAAA members are encouraged to inform responsible authorities if they become aware that illegal signs are being erected.
• We encourage the responsible placement of billboards to meet changing community standards and business needs.

Provide an Effective, Attractive Product

• We are committed to providing value and service to advertisers in communities nationwide.
• We are committed to maintaining and improving the quality and appearance of billboard structures and locations.
• We encourage the use of new technologies to continuously improve the service we provide to advertisers and to continuously improve the information we provide to the public.
• We are committed to excellence in the advertising displays we exhibit because we provide the most public "art gallery" there is.

Support Worthy Public Causes

• We are committed to providing public service messages to promote worthy community causes.
• We advocate the increasing use of billboards for political, editorial, public service and other noncommercial messages.

Observe Highest Free Speech Standards

• We support the First Amendment right of advertisers to promote legal products and services.

OAAA Advertising Practices for Children

The outdoor advertising medium delivers advertisers' messages to the consumer in a public arena necessitating a high sensitivity to community standards as well as a vigilant defense of commercial free speech.

We, the members of the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA), are careful to place outdoor advertisements for products illegal for sale to minors on advertising displays that are a reasonable distance from the public places where children most frequently congregate.

In our vigilant support of children and free speech, we recommend that each OAAA member company adopt standards that include the following code of advertising practices:

• We are committed to a program which establishes exclusionary zones that prohibit outdoor advertisements of products illegal for sale to minors that are intended to be read from, or within 500 feet of, elementary and secondary schools, public playgrounds, and established places of worship.
• We encourage the identification of all outdoor advertising displays within the exclusionary zone(s) by attaching the international children's symbol (shown here) in a clearly visible location.
• We support establishing reasonable limits on the total number of outdoor displays in a market that may carry messages about products that are illegal for sale to minors.
• We seek to maintain broad diversification of customers that advertise in the outdoor medium.
• We support the right to reject advertising that is misleading, offensive, or otherwise incompatible with individual community standards, and in particular, we do not disseminate obscene words or inappropriate pictorial content.

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