FIGHT DANGEROUS ROAD SIGN POSTS

Washington Times-Herald
December 24, 1922

Committees of A. A. A. Plan to Combat All Objectional Highway Billboards.

Committees from the American Automobile Association and the Poster Advertising Association of the United States and Canada will formulate plans to combat dangerous and objectionable roadside billboards and sign posts according to plans made at a meeting of the A. A. A. executive board at Cincinnati this week.  A committee from the Poster Advertising Association consisting of J. H. Brinkmyer, president; Allen E. Frost, national counsellor, and W. J. Ferris, appeared before the A. A. A. executive board and explained their position in regard to outdoor advertising.

Officials of the American Automobile Association explained to the Poster Advertising representatives that while the A. A. A. is opposed to any form of advertising which mars the landscape that its particular opposition is to the large boards placed at intersecting highways or at sharp curves which obscure from the view of the motorist traffic coming down that intersecting highway or around that curve; to the advertising signs which simulate the appearance of railroad crossing or other danger signals, distracting the attention of the motorist with the possibility of an accident, and the promiscuous use of cloth, tin and cardboard signs tacked on trees and fances which give the motorist the impression of driving along a city dump instead of in the open country.

Mr. Frost said that his association would gladly co-operate in any manner for the elimination of such signs and that his association would appoint a committee of three to co-operate with a similar committee from the American Automobile Association with a view to seeking some means for the elimination of such signs.

The A. A. A. executive board authorized President Diehl to name such a committee, and a meeting will be held in the near future to discuss ways and means of eliminating dangerous and unsightly road signs.