History of outdoor advertising
It has been claimed by many, that outdoor advertising is the oldest medium in existence. Outdoor advertising dates back to Egyptian times, when hieroglyphics were written on roadside stones to give people directions to the nearest town or village.
Outdoor advertising has been around since the 1860s. At that time, companies used to rent advertising space on boards for bills to be pasted, hence the term 'billboard'. There are two main types of billboards-poster panels and ‘painted boards’.
The billboards come in several sizes, named according to the number of sheets of paper originally needed to cover them, such as ‘4-sheets’, ‘6-sheets’ and ‘48-sheets’.
Poster panels are usually found in populated areas or in areas in or near cities or towns. ‘
Painted boards’, (mainly 48-sheets and 96-sheets) are larger boards situated along motorways and A-roads. The name ‘painted boards ( or bulletins) ’ refers to the fact that the advertising was originally painted by hand at the site. They still do this in India today !
To a certain extent the larger boards in the United Kingdom are still ‘painted with glue’ in order to paste the different sheets of the advertisement together.
Today, advertising on 48-sheet and 96-sheet billboards is created by using lithography blue backed paper or stretch vinyl, and very recently, digital, LED and plasma screens allowing static advertisements to rotate in succession.
