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World’s largest outdoor ads to target airline passengers

World’s largest outdoor ads to target airline passengers
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Ad-Air site installation.
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Ad-Air site installation.
Ad-Air site scaffolding.
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Ad-Air site scaffolding.
Ad-Air size comparison - three times the size of a soccer pitch
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Ad-Air size comparison - three times the size of a soccer pitch
View from aircraft passenger window.
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View from aircraft passenger window.
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September 27, 2007 Fledgling company Ad-Air has announced plans to target airline passengers with enormous flight path ads at the world’s busiest airports. The first of its kind project will see digitally printed ad skins of 20,000 square meters (215,000 square feet) – that twice the size of London’s Trafalgar Square – placed within view of window seat passengers.

September 27, 2007 Fledgling company Ad-Air has announced plans to target airline passengers with enormous flight path ads at the world’s busiest airports. The first of its kind project will see digitally printed ad skins of 20,000 square meters (215,000 square feet) – that twice the size of London’s Trafalgar Square – placed within view of window seat passengers.

These truly BIG ads will be spread over a network of 30 airports, the final details of which are still being negotiated. One chosen site is London’s Heathrow airport which will offer advertisers the opportunity to reach a high quality captive audience in addition to high-volume. It is estimated Ad-Air will deliver up to 10 million unique viewers and achieve 20 million impacts per year.

Paul Jenkins, Managing Director of Ad-Air Group Plc said: “Outdoor spectaculars or megasites remain the jewel in the crown of the rapidly growing outdoor advertising industry. As a global network of premium advertising sites, placed in clutter-free environments and moments free of any other commercial messages, we’ll be reaching millions of airline passengers in their seats and millions more through the power of word of mouth. Ad-Air will be offering advertisers a simply unprecedented marketing opportunity and creative agencies a unique canvas to work with.”

The actual construction of the ads will include a non-permanent frame at just above ground level; the surrounding fencing, and where applicable, landscaping to ensure that it is not visible to local residents and passers-by. Where placed over fertile land, the digital ads will be printed on a lightweight, durable woven PVC mesh that allows air and moisture through to maintain the soil beneath. In other locations, sheet vinyl will be used.

The sites will only be illuminated where legislation allows and the use of the latest lighting technology will minimize light spill out of the enclosure. Ad-Air worked closely with local councils and airport authorities to obtain the appropriate permissions. There is of course debate over the necessity of this type of advertising. Just this year Sao Paulo in Brazil became the first non-communist city in the world to declare a radical, near-complete ban on outdoor advertising. The “Clean City Law” was the brainchild of the Sao Paulo’s conservative mayor, Gilberto Kassab, and has been an unexpected success. While Mayor Kassab has banned outdoor advertising http://adbusters.org/the_magazine/73.php?id=297 it seems that Dubai is embracing the concept and will be home to the first Ad-Air site to be unveiled in October 2007.

There has been a recent proliferation in the size and outrageousness of advertising with marketers commandeering almost any available space to slap a brand on. Some of the latest crazes in global advertising are the world’s largest digital graphic, the digital ink billboard, buildings as billboards and the flying billboard.

And if you are visualizing scenes from the cult film Bladerunner - you are not alone.

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