Human billboards have been used for centuries. In 19th century London, the practice began when advertising posters became subject to a tax and competition for wall space became fierce. Prince Pückler-Muskau described the activity in 1820s London as such:
Human directionals are still widely used, especially in areas that have a lot of pedestrian traffic, but even in places that have a great deal of automobile traffic. For the latter, the signs will frequently be shaped like arrows in order to direct traffic to the location being advertised. Eye Shot, a Lake Forest, California company claims to have invented modern sign spinning using arrow-shaped signs. The modern human directional employs a number of tricks to attract attention, such as spinning the sign on one finger, throwing it up in the air and spinning it, or even riding the sign like a horse. Another California company, AArrow Advertising, conducts "boot camps" to train its employees, and has also filed patent applications for a number of its "signature moves".
However, the use of such attention-grabbing tricks has been criticized by city officials as being distracting to drivers, and as a result, a number of cities have banned sign twirling. Some companies like Enlarge Media Group and Jet Media are able to offer human directionals as "sign walkers", a less distracting form of sign twirling. Further restrictions on sign walkers in Arizona caused Jet Media Promotions, the state's largest supplier of human billboards, to sue the city of Scottsdale. The company's owner then successfully campaigned for legislation that made it illegal for cities in Arizona to ban such advertising.
Demand for human directionals has significantly increased since the introduction of sign-twirling techniques. In temperate and warm locations, sign holders can be employed year-round and their effectiveness has been amply demonstrated. For example, during the month of October 2006, nearly 8% of the 3,600 people who visited model homes in a housing development in Moreno Valley, California were directed there by human directionals. The Entertainment Factory in Florida provides human directionals to several successful businesses in Central Florida. Some use them as their sole form of advertising. Naturally, there are concerns that just as in 19th-century London, as human directionals become more and more commonplace, their effectiveness will be diminished.
In the U.S., independent tax preparers, and some tax-preparation chains, use sign wavers in costume, seasonally near the US personal income tax deadline of April 15. The costumes are usually Statue of Liberty or Uncle Sam costumes. This seems to be a recent, 21st-century trend and is becoming common and competitive.
Sign wavers are also commonly used in the U.S. for Halloween stores, which are only temporary and relocate each year, and thus do not have permanent store signs, nor time to gradually build a customer base by word of mouth, or by being shown on web mapping services. These human billboards often wear a Halloween costume supplied by the store.
Advertising on clothing has also long been used, with T-shirts being extremely popular. At first, T-shirts were used exclusively as undergarments, but as early as the 1930s, they were already used for advertising, with a 1939 The Wizard of Oz promotional shirt being a prized collector's item today. The 1948 United States presidential campaign featured a T-shirt with "Dew It for Dewey", referring to candidate Thomas Dewey, which is now housed in the Smithsonian Institution. T-shirts have since been used to advertise all different kinds of products, services, and political messages. The newest trend is to have moving pictures on clothing. The first instance of this was done at the 2003 Rugby World Cup, where "Telstra girls" wore T-shirts outfitted with a small television screen and a DVD player, called "TelePAKs". This was duplicated in the United States in 2004 with "Adver-Wear" that made its debut advertising the film I, Robot. In 1999, Vibe magazine predicted that companies in the next millennium would pay people to get tattoos advertising their brands. In March 2001, American professional basketball player Rasheed Wallace rejected an offer from advertising firm Fifty Rubies Marketing to wear a tattoo advertising a candy company's product. However, a month later, the cheerleaders for Lincoln Lightning's High Voltage Dance Team wore 2-inch by 4-inch temporary tattoos ("tadoos") that advertised local companies on their bare midriffs. In September 2001, a prominent online casino paid boxer Bernard Hopkins US$100,000 to wear a temporary tattoo on his back during his championship fight with Félix Trinidad, making him the first athlete to wear a tattoo advertisement during a professional sports event. Six months later, the company did the same to participants in the television show Celebrity Boxing.
Human directionals are still widely used, especially in areas that have a lot of pedestrian traffic, but even in places that have a great deal of automobile traffic. For the latter, the signs will frequently be shaped like arrows in order to direct traffic to the location being advertised. Eye Shot, a Lake Forest, California company claims to have invented modern sign spinning using arrow-shaped signs. The modern human directional employs a number of tricks to attract attention, such as spinning the sign on one finger, throwing it up in the air and spinning it, or even riding the sign like a horse. Another California company, AArrow Advertising, conducts "boot camps" to train its employees, and has also filed patent applications for a number of its "signature moves".
However, the use of such attention-grabbing tricks has been criticized by city officials as being distracting to drivers, and as a result, a number of cities have banned sign twirling. Some companies like Enlarge Media Group and Jet Media are able to offer human directionals as "sign walkers", a less distracting form of sign twirling. Further restrictions on sign walkers in Arizona caused Jet Media Promotions, the state's largest supplier of human billboards, to sue the city of Scottsdale. The company's owner then successfully campaigned for legislation that made it illegal for cities in Arizona to ban such advertising.
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Sign wavers are also commonly used in the U.S. for Halloween stores, which are only temporary and relocate each year, and thus do not have permanent store signs, nor time to gradually build a customer base by word of mouth, or by being shown on web mapping services. These human billboards often wear a Halloween costume supplied by the store.
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