Yahoo And Their Use Of Billboards...

from the they-sure-like-the-billboards dept

Wed, Mar 24th 2004 12:53pm — Mike Masnick

Billboards are pretty straightforward, usually. You don't generally expect all that much innovation in billboard advertising. Sure, there are now video billboards, and there are always the more creative billboards with funky designs, but Yahoo is really getting into the idea of interactive billboards. Earlier this year, they had their bizarre meet someone at Yahoo personals and go on a date on a billboard (and the meant, literally, the date occurred on the billboard). Now, Mobiletracker has found a story about Yahoo's latest billboard in Times Square that is displaying a video game - that anyone can play via their mobile phone. So, if you happen to be wandering through Times Square, you can call up an 800 number, and wait until they say it's your turn. Then you control one of two cars in a racing game, using the #2 button to speed up, and the #8 button to slow down. If others are calling in, you race against them. Otherwise, you just race against the computer. As they point out, it doesn't require any fancy new mobile phone, as it's just using the number pad.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team