Monday this week I was looking at a billboard and did a double take. I realized now what the sign was supposed to read. It was an advertisement for a soft drink and it was SUPPOSED to say something along the lines of “Save Your Buck”. Well the billboard was placed near the ground off the highway and accessible to people. Someone had gotten creative and changed the “B” to an “F”. Now the whole message was gone and it was derogatory. It didn’t last long because today (Wednesday) I noticed the billboard was replaced (same billboard but sans graffiti).
That was an expensive oops on the part of making sure your ad placement is out of reach from looters if your message could be easily edited to send the wrong message.
On a side note, a person would have less than a second to read the billboard as it was immediately after an overpass.
Also, Cheerios is in the hot seat with the FDA. Apparently if you claim to have health benefits worded as they do (Cheerios as a “treatment” by which you can lower cholesterol), you have to get approval to be acting as a drug. Cheerios has many claims that are unverified with the FDA and thus don’t have approval. The FDA wrote a letter to Cheerios (available here) that has some startling warnings!
Failure to promptly correct the violations specified above may result in enforcement action without further notice. Enforcement action may include seizure of violative products and/or injunction against the manufacturers and distributors of violative products.