In Visual Marketing, we really like companies that push the envelope.  That’s why TheHangline.com’s 10 Commandments of Outdoor Advertising appealed to us. It’s a tongue-in-cheek instruction sheet that plays off of the common mistakes companies make on their billboards (overstuffing them with too many words, using photos of their pets to sell products) visually played on a vinyl poster.

The 10 Commandments started as a blog post, but Todd Turner, Editor of TheHangline, immediately saw the visual potential.

“We knew it could make some waves in the outdoor industry because these “rules of thumb” have never been put into a permanent format,” explains Turner, “Basically, these rules were often broken because nobody bothered to write them down in one place and make a strong stance about them. Creating a poster was another way of setting the Commandments in stone so to speak.”

But staying true to his encouragement to avoid cliche, he didn’t want to put the Commandments on a stone tablet. (Besides, who chisels in stone mass production these days?) The result is a visually appealing poster that is a sure conversation starter.

Turner says the posters have served as a great tool to promote the blog, and Eclipse Imaging, the company who printed the posters on billboard vinyl, also use them to show what they can do. “Most people are using them as wall decor which sparks a conversation or can be pointed to when someone wants their phone, fax, email, website and address included on a billboard.” (for that reference, see #4)

We’re hoping to see more quirky creativity from TheHangline.com. Turner says that they have plans to have a billboard campaign to promote their site about billboards. Coming to a city near you, we hope