“Dear Bungalower, we keep seeing these Read & Seed billboards going up around town, and we love the message, but we don’t know who is posting them or whether they are tied to a specific advertising campaign. Do you know anything about them?” – Erin Sullivan
The Read and Seed billboards are run by OUTFRONT Media (Website), the North American headquarters of which are in New York with a regional office based in the Sodo District. Bungalower reached out to them late last week to see who was behind the campaign and they gave us the following answer.
“I’m reaching out per your inquiry on the “Read and Seed” creative on our boards.
Occasionally, we have the opportunity to run PSA messaging, when there is a gap between advertisers posting on a particular board. Our local production coordinator was looking for something to make the most out of the opportunity and reached out to our Creative Studio in Atlanta. The Creative Director, Eddy Herty, challenged the designers to create something that mattered to them, “a PSA they could champion. Since OOH (out-of-home) is such a powerful medium and they are so passionate about designing for it, it made sense to combine the two loves.”
As far as the concept goes, here’s the background from the designer, Rhea Walsh:
“I’ve always loved reading, and I feel like that love has helped me a lot in both my personal and professional life. Reading is learning, even if it’s fiction, and it helps you grow as a person. With so much technology and other distractions available now, I wanted to do something to encourage people to remember to take time to read and learn. I grew up in the country, so the concept is a play on the Feed & Seed stores I used to see all the time. Just as you might plant seeds to cultivate the land, reading plants the seeds to nurture your brain and help you grow.”
So the answer is, that the billboards are not tied to any larger effort but are just a call for more reading by the agency that owns them, in between ad opportunities.
That’s awesome! We have one here in Garfield NJ as well.