Imagine Houston without billboards blocking the view of the downtown skyline and the Houston sky.
Along U.S. 59, Loop 610, Interstate 10 and Beltway 8 North, 13 billboards were replaced in an attempt to bring Houstonians closer to that dream.
Depicted on each billboard is what the skyline would look like if the billboard weren’t there. This is all part of Karyn Olivier’s latest work, Inbound: Houston, which cost her $40,000 to carry out.
The pending success of this extra clutter will likely inspire other artists and produce more billboards of the same kind.
Not only is this plan pointless, it’s also distracting. The billboards will only stay up through Nov. 22, at which point they will be taken down.
It is not worth the artist’s time or money, considering the short time the billboards will be shown, because commuters could see what the sky really looked like if the billboards simply weren’t there. Why not use that money to have the billboards taken down permanently?
This new concept is definitely better than normal advertising billboards, and it’ll be a good break from them. But if the advertising billboards are going to be replaced with a fake skyline, they should just be taken down altogether.
Free speech has become distracting instead of enlightening due in part to marketing tools, such as billboards that distract us instead of letting us have thoughts of our own.
Every day when Houstonians drive down the highways, they are brainwashed by businesses. We are surrounded by a major plan for these businesses to make more money.
Billboards have become the norm – the accepted city scenery – not only in Houston but all over America, and they need to be taken down.
If not, there is a chance that the 200-foot billboards found in the dystopia of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 will eventually become reality. People will simply ignore billboards to the extent that they no longer see the area around them.
At least some of these advertisements need to be taken down to eliminate the clutter that constantly surrounds us and our thoughts.
Ryan Popham is a’ communication freshman and may be reached at [email protected]
