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Michael Kelley

The Berkshires without billboards

Billboards are without doubt the largest way to advertise a product; but in reality, how effective are they? Forty years ago, the state of Vermont banned billboards. Despite initial calamitous claims from the business community that its members would surely perish, Vermont’s economy did survive. Thirty years ago or so, a group of men in Great Barrington took the billboard issue into their own hands one night. Armed with chain saws, they quickly felled two billboards facing the southbound lane of Stockbridge Road near the intersection of Belcher Square. Those billboards have been replaced with steel girders. So, do billboards still have a place along the roadways and highways in Massachusetts, especially at a time where preserving the environment is such a hot button “green” issue? Many would say yes, while still others would say no. full story