Intellectual property is a tricky field, it's far easier being a divorce lawyer. Perhaps that explains why Todd Turner and Brandon Sweeney's "OOPS" divorce attorney billboard from 2015 keeps being recycled by other attorneys. Or should I say "O💍PS" billboard? Featured in the most recent edition of the book "Hey Whipple" which you can peek at here and here on adland, it's one of Todd's best-known billboards, and he makes standout OOH on the regular.
It's so simple to get you can pass it at 60 mph and still register that you should call Kuhn & Kuhn Law Firm if your ring-exchange ceremony was an "oops".
A really easy message to understand as a great billboard, in a category where billboards are usually pretty terrible, will get noticed. This billboard got noticed so much that other law firms simply copied it. Oops!
The Rousell Law Firm, LLC, in Louisiana ran this billboard in July 2020. Or at least, that's when they made a facebook post with this image.
Central Pennsylvania's Premier Law Firm "The Law Office of Jason R Carpenter" is currently using this as a banner on their Linkedin. They also have the concept on their website.
Fliphound, a digital billboard automation company, uses the "oops" concept as an example of "creative" that you could use for any legal billboard. They suggest it's just a list of ideas to use for inspiration.
*Sigh*, so where am I going with this, you ask? You've read enough badland twin ads to know that one can not have the copyright of an idea, you can patent an invention, you can trademark words, names, slogans, and logotypes, and you can copyright an execution - words, images, music, films, etcetera and so on. But the core idea is not something you can nail down legally, really. What you can do, however, instead of scouring the web for "inspiration" for a great billboard is hire the guy who comes up with great billboards consistently, as Todd Turner does and his portfolio proves.
Creatives should be treated with the same respect as any other skilled person in any industry, if you've seen great creative work, give the creative the credit for it. Ours is a skill that we hone for years, don't just gank someone else's idea and pretend you came up with it.
Adland® is a commercial-laden heaven and hell for advertising addicts around the world.
This advertising publication was founded in 1996, built on beer and bravery, Adland® now boasts the largest super bowl commercials collection in the world.
Adland® survives on your donations alone. You can help us out by buying us a Ko-Fi. Adland® works best in Brave browser
Todd's billboard is better than all of them, and that's not just because he came up with the idea. It reads better, it's clean and simple. The lawyers should be ashamed of themselves. Thanks for sharing his site, he has a lot of impactful OOH.
- reply
PermalinkLawyers are sleazy. Couldn't the first lawyers sue the others?
- reply
PermalinkHa! I would actually love to see that. But they can't bill anyone for those hours, so that won't happen.
- reply
PermalinkImitation is the sincerest form of flattery, as they say.
- reply
PermalinkI love great billboards. Billboard creatives are the unsung heroes of the highways, there is so much absolute dreck out there.
- reply
PermalinkTruth.
- reply
PermalinkNice one!
- reply
PermalinkHa, thanks!
- reply
Permalink