Bored by texting while driving? Coming soon to California freeways (if the below bill passes the legislature): Ads on license plates that appear when cars stop in traffic. From the Silicon Valley Mercury News:

“The California Legislature is considering a bill that would allow the state to begin researching the use of electronic license plates for vehicles. The move is intended as a moneymaker for a state facing a $19 billion deficit.

“The device would mimic a standard license plate when the vehicle is in motion but would switch to digital ads or other messages when it is stopped for more than four seconds, whether in traffic or at a red light. The license plate number would remain visible at all times in some section of the screen.

“In emergencies, the plates could be used to broadcast Amber Alerts or traffic information.”

Seems a little far-fetched to me. In the case of a roadside billboard, an advertiser can gather audience profile data across tens of thousands of drivers and make some reasonable assumptions: you can survey a few hundred representative drivers about their incomes, buying behaviors and likelihood of looking at the billboards along their commutes. Targeting gets more complex when you’re betting that the guy behind your ad-plated car — right at the moment the traffic comes to a halt — fits your definition of an ideal prospective customer. And even if he is, how do you know he’s not looking down to spin the dial on his radio?

This campaign for Pizza Kingdom ran on escalators in China. More at Ads of the World.

I love this one for Lego: It’s an on-building billboard that creates a sense of depth, which — to my eyes — makes the building (and my life??) feel less complete without a few more Legos.

Other on-building ads are just bigger, like this one for GTA. Meh. In those cases, I don’t know how much extra value the advertiser, not to mention the passer-by, gets from the gigantic custom work.

(Thanks, Nippy!)

Ads were everywhere, from the front page of the Times of India — Yahoo’s ad was the front page; news started on Page Two that day — to private cement fences in rural towns, like this one for Vodafone in Alleppey in the southern state of Kerala. Made me feel that Times Square isn’t taking full advantage of all its opportunities.

From Telegraph UK:

“The advertisement, for WPMI-TV in Alabama, showed the station’s anchors, Greg Peterson and Kym Thurman, with their top weatherman Derek Beasley, alongside the latest headline and the words ‘Right now on Twitter’.

“Unfortunately for the station, at one stage the top headline on Twitter read ‘Three accused of gang rape in Monroeville,’ and the misleading juxtaposition was caught on camera by a passing motorist as he drove through Mobile, Alabama.”

Driving down the Santa Monica Freeway in LA yesterday I got my first look at Toyota’s floral billboard for Prius, which went live (literally) back in August:

“Toyota’s partnership with Greenroad Media of Santa Monica includes the upkeep of nine urban freeway sections, which basically consists of maintaining and repairing corresponding irrigation and landscape in exchange for using the ground as a floral billboard. Caltrans does not allow any product identification in the actual floral designs, but a nearby sign with the Prius name proudly displayed is installed nearby.”

Some press gave Toyota a hard time for making advertising that requires watering. I don’t get that — we all love gardens and flowers and parks, all of which require watering. So as long a flower billboard is pretty like non-advertising gardens, where’s the problem? Plus I’ve got to believe that replacing metal-plastic-and-ink billboards (with flood lights pointed at them) with plant-based billboards would be a net positive for the environment.

The latest rage in the German advertising community, apparently. From AdFreak:

“Since skywriting is no longer acceptable in advertising, German agency Jung von Matt has settled for ‘flyvertising,’ attaching tiny ad banners to flies and letting them buzz around a convention center during the Frankfurt book fair. Neat idea, but the obvious flaw is that flies are the most annoying things ever, and may not be something you’d want people associating with your product long-term.”

Above is a street in Palestine named after the Twittter handle of a non-profit patron. That and other examples of offline extensions of social-media ad campaigns at urlesque. ???? ????? ??????? ???

“We have to give credit to Pug’s advertisers for thinking with their bottoms, though this ad encourages staring at taillights instead of the road. Also, it doesn’t look like there’s enough room for all our junk in that trunk.”