A resident of the United Kingdom is enraged at grandiose and wasteful advertisements that are polluting their community with light, noise, and carbon.
Truckside advertising — a variety of advertising that plays audiovisual media on trucks as they drive around populated areas — is gaining traction. According to AdQuick, the method is meant to generate attention and online buzz, as well as "offer large canvases to display your content, ensuring that it will be widely seen by the public."
They garner positive attention online in the intended manner but also negative attention from those who are displeased by the wasteful and raucous nature of the method.
In a post to a subreddit dedicated to "Discussion about the harmful effects of car dominance on communities, environment, safety, and public health," a user shared their experience of being disturbed by one such truck late at night.
"These trucks drive around town during the day as well and depending on the advertisement displayed, can also flash constantly," they wrote. "It's a sensory nightmare."
The accompanying image is taken from an apartment a few stories off the ground and features a mobile advertising truck for "Brat," Charli XCX's new album. The neon green light from the mobile billboard totally illuminates the area by the window and is visible several stories up on a building on the opposite side of the street.
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The OP also raised concerns about how the advertisement might affect drivers. "I genuinely don't understand how this is legal," they say. "It's so bright, literally flashing, makes noise, and is disorienting as f***."
The fact that these advertisements are unsettling to residents is bad enough, but they also represent an unnecessary contribution to the most common contributor to rising global temperatures. Our World in Data reports that transportation represents 24% of direct global planet-warming pollution, and while truckside advertising does confer monetary benefits to those who use it, they ought to raise the question of whether or not those could be replicated in a more sustainable fashion.
Many transportation sectors are electrifying their fleets, and in some areas, governments are taking action to incentivize driving low-pollution vehicles and de-incentivize gas guzzlers.
Commenters on the post expressed a range of emotions about the advertising method, but aside from those excited about the album, none of them seemed to be positive.
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"Advertisements that on top of being obnoxious worsen air quality, cause global warming and even take away the darkness of night," one wrote, "talk about ways of making me hate a product."
Another spoke to the growing experience of advertising fatigue. "I'm sick of everywhere I look at being an advertisement. Why is everything a billboard?"
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