Billboard editing: massive typo edition
By Todd Stadler · Thursday, September 21, 2006 1:28am
There are lots of billboards in Portland's downtown grid that, while seemingly meant for passing cars, are even more noticeable to pedestrians like myself.
Mainly this is due to the surprisingly large size of such billboards (something you don't notice until you're standing underneath one), and the amount of time they stay in your field of vision when passing them on foot at a few miles an hour. If these billboards are meant to catch the eyes of motorists going 30 down the street, then they have the effect of catching and then bludgeoning the eyes of those of us à pied.
The point being that you have plenty of time to notice more than just the main point of any such billboard you walk by on your way to work.
So it was that when I passed the above March of Dimes billboard, I couldn't but help to chuckle to myself. "Now there's a typo!" I thought.
When I got to work, I called March of Dimes to ask them if they knew about the error, and they said that yes, they'd gotten a few calls, and they'd send someone out to put up a new, corrected billboard ad in a few days.
Fortunately, they got around to fixing the ad yesterday:
5 comments so far
1 Apr 09 '08 1:00pm:
Anonymous replied:
"What a stupid thing to photoshop. You're a real dick."
2 Apr 26 '08 8:39pm:
Travis Lane replied:
"I hope someday you have kids in the NICU so you can understand the pain of watching the effects of premature birth firsthand. I honestly do."
3 May 10 '08 1:27pm:
CHRIS JONES replied:
"I hope someday you are told your unborn child has Down Syndrome and you get to hear the March of Dimes tell you it should be aborted! We did and we now have a beautiful 6 year old daughter with Downs who is also in perfect health. March of dimes saves babies as long as the are not "defective". "
4 May 10 '08 5:00pm:
tODD replied:
"Hello, all. I'm not sure how you all are finding this entry over a year after it was posted, but I can tell that you were upset by what I've written. I also feel you might have misunderstood my point.
Upon rereading what I'd posted, I think I can see that I didn't provide enough context for what I was saying, which was also phrased sarcastically — perhaps confusingly so. I don't have anything against the March of Dimes and what they do — in fact, I'm sure they do a lot of good things (though I myself am not familiar with everything they do).
The overall point of my post was to make people think about abortion. I agree very much with what the March of Dimes billboard said: that all babies deserve a full term in the womb.
The irony, however, is that most of our society only thinks that babies deserve all nine months if their parents want to have them. If a baby is unwanted, it is not even referred to as a baby, but rather a fetus, and it is killed after a few months in the womb. Why does our society think some babies deserve all nine months, while others do not? The only difference is that they are wanted or not. That is very sad.
I hope this comment helps to explain a bit better where I was coming from."
5 May 13 '08 9:53am:
Chris Jones replied:
"My comment above(the third one down) was directed at the first two. To wish for someone to have a child in the NICU is sick. What about that child, HELLO! My daughter with Down Syndrome is considered defective by the march of Dimes. My daughter spent 16 days in the NICU to get better due to complications with Downs. She also went through the second year of her life going through Chemo-therapy for Leukemia. So I know all well about having a child in the hospital. She has been in remission for 4 years and is in perfect health. March of Dimes wanted her aborted! The want to get rid of the defect by getting rid of the defective. I love her and cant imagine life without her."