Billboards Can Teach Us A Lot

When I was younger, my family would travel down to Myrtle Beach for a week each summer. Dad was a firefighter, and mom was a nurse, so squaring up the time to take off was sometimes a challenge. The trip always included a brief stop at South of the Border, a truck stop/amusement park hybrid, hugging the state line in South Carolina.

The billboards usually start 100+ miles before the destination. My favorite was the giant hotdog with “You’re always a weiner at Pedro’s” and “You never sausage a place.” It always made my sister and me giggle.

I still drive to South Carolina frequently, and these days, you’re likely to see a Buc-cees billboard on I-95 South…and, like me, 100 times more likely to stop there. I haven’t been to S.O.B. in years. It’s sad looking. Times change, but billboards can teach us a lot. You just have to look for the signs.

The short drive from downtown Charleston through North Charleston on I-26 West has 39 billboards. I counted them. Two signs for HVAC, three for car dealerships, three for hospitals, and one for a Mexican restaurant. The rest (31 out of 39) are for personal injury attorneys. 

Why would nine personal injury law firms buy 31 out of 39 billboards on one short stretch of road? The short answer is because that stretch of road had almost 1,700 accidents in 2023, resulting in 347 injuries and 34 deaths. The longer answer is I-26 in Charleston has heavy traffic volume, frequent lane changes, poor road conditions, poorly designed intersections, high speeds, and sudden traffic slowdowns. Add in other factors such as distracted driving (cell phones), speeding, aggressive driving, and a failure to wear seatbelts, make this stretch of road a goldmine for PI attorneys.

It’s a classic example of how research and advertising go hand-in-hand. The ad agencies and media buyers working for these law firms in South Carolina know that thousands of residents spend way too much time stuck in traffic and are more likely to be involved in a car accident on this stretch of road than in most other places. They place their money in billboards, and I’m not sure of the ROI, but I can assume it must be worth it. 

Otherwise, we’d see more Cracker Barrel and Chipotle billboards. Especially if they were targeting me. The Buc-cees ads worked – and I got my first BBQ brisket sandwich in Florence, SC on Monday.

We don’t have any billboards for Texas Inn Richmond yet, but you should visit anyway.