I got a call this morning to make a run up to North KC so I was out most of the day. It was kinda unexpected but I did try and schedule a Tractor Time post but once again it didn't work.
Never fear my fellow tractor enthusiasts I am scheduled to make a run the next two days so the tractors will return.
I try and make some observations as I roll through different sections of America's heartland and today was no exception. Going West is always a bit of a let down for me usually though because it seems when I travel West I rarely get far off the main interstates unlike when I go North or South. This time was no exception as it was I-70 and I-435 the entire way but I did have plenty of time to think on one observation in particular that has been right in front of me for a while now.
Advertising billboards.
While the interstate seems to still have plenty of small do-it-yourself type billboards that never seem to change and usually advertise for some regional business like equipment sales or adult bookstores I have been paying closer attention to the overly large, extremely well lit, expensive ones lately.
It seems to me there are only two major buyers of these billboards all across the mid-section of Missouri and one of them is a distant second.
Auto Dealerships and every college or university in the State.
I swear I saw one University that called itself Mom and Pop's Burger Barn and Community College.
Some of the larger ones seem to have enough money to blow they can afford to place these skyscraper sized billboards into groups of six or more each with one word and a Minority student pictured per board. I counted about eight different colleges advertising just between Columbia and KC this afternoon and I am not even sure where a couple of them are even located.
These bill boards are not new but as this downturn continues they have taken on a different tone and relevance especially as all the other signs begin to appear more run down and less maintained.
I guess advertising doesn't cost, it pays. Especially when your using someone else' money to get there.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!
Hello
ReplyDeleteMy name is Sam Gonzalez and my blog is called The Last Tradition
http://thelasttradition.blogspot.com/
I’m a conservative and I think our blogs have a similar theme.
Check out my blog and if you like what you see I would very much like
to be added to your Blog Roll.
If you agree please write back with your URL and I gladly add you to my
Blog Roll.
Thanks for your time.
Samuel - Why sure!!! I already added a link to your site and joined you as a follower as well.
DeletePioneer Preppy
DeleteThanks for adding me and signing up. I add you to the TLT B roll too
I agree! billboards have never done anything to get my business. I wonder how many of those college ones, are actually acredited schools? Anyone can purchase the advertising and say "Come to college here"
ReplyDeleteJuGM - I recognized a few of them but there were some I was more than ignorant of and have never heard of before.
DeleteThose "learn a trade in 6 months or less" schools are charging $50K to teach bare minimum stuff that a kid out of high school could learn on the job (at reduced pay rate) if a kid had that kind of perseverance.
DeleteAnd the trouble with those kinds of "schools" is that they teach on state of the art equipment (that very few employers, except dealers have) and brand spanking new items that need fixing. We're a repair shop and 99% of the models we service/fix are 5-10yrs old or more. And the heavy equipment we repair is 20- 30+ yrs old. (Nobody except Caterpillar can buy a $3M machine to mine/log/excavate/farm)
these schools are not preparing anyone for work in the real world. They are just syphoning $ off idiots who think they need a piece of paper that tells them they are now an "expert".
We wouldn't mind training the right person, but it's extremely difficult finding someone who will show up on time and wants to work, and will get dirty. And not just stand around and collect a paycheck. "special snowflakes".
PP,
ReplyDeleteBillboards make great plastic to outline a garden, and to dump soil and natural fertilizer on to prevent weeds from growing. That's what I think about them :-)
Sandy - I have heard that :)
DeleteWhat's worse is the new LED like TV bill boards. I saw some along I-4 down in Fla. Talk about bright at night...Wow.
ReplyDeleteRob - I only see those right in the center of the major population areas not 75 miles out like some of these.
DeleteI get a lot of information that you never will see on lame stream from Sam Gonzalez, it is a good source of information!
ReplyDeleteWhen the colleges start running out of money it will be time to buy more rice!
Sf - Ya we will know it's coming down when that happens I guess.
DeleteI saw something somewhere but I don't remember where, so paraphrasing it said;
ReplyDeleteKids yesterday used to work unpaid intern/apprenticeship positions so that they could go onto jobs and get paid for work .
Today they go to school so they can go to work their whole lives to pay for that "education" .
fjord - I think a number of them are thinking if enough of them get snowed under with education debt the government will bail em out.
DeleteI would never recommend a White boy go to college. They are the least likely to get the old government helping hand.
Is that picture one of the actual billboards? Cause I was curios what she was successful at and the only Dana Mcullough I could find, who fit the description (spitting image), graduated from the Columbia College in South Carolina, not the one in MO.
ReplyDeleteRuss - When I found that one online it said 2005 so I don't know. I didn't take a picture of one myself my phone cam doesn't do well at 70 mph :)
DeleteI realized it was too fine a quality to be an actual camera shot from the road. What I meant, "is this one of the billboards you actually saw?" or is it just representative of the type. Either is fine, but it wouldn't stun me to find a marketing company putting up pictures of graduates from other schools by mistake.
Delete