Digital Billboards add movement to extremely large ads

And we thought roadside advertising was already obtrusive into our lives! Cisco Systems plans to have a multi-billion dollar business running through digital billboards by 2010. Google and Coca-Cola, among others, have already shown their interest in extending their advertising wings to these massive animated billboards.

Interestingly, these billboards are already technologically advanced enough to actually interact with the people and environment they are in. Talk about distractions. These goliaths will play film clips and animations to distract your eyes from the road. We wonder how this will effect traffic accidents on their initial popularity.

LiveScience references an old SciFi story by J.G. Ballard called The Subliminal Man. The story talks about gigantic posters that proclaim you to BUY NOW. Do you think these digital billboards will be used for brainwashing? Seems far fetched, but who knows what these bastards will do for a cent. Good thing most of us are already brainwashed! — Andrew Dobrow

The Next Really Big Thing: Digital Billboards [LiveScience, via Coolest Gadgets]