Billboards catching the eyes of North Dakotans

STUTSMAN COUNTY, N.D. (KFYR) - Right now, there is not a lot of scenery that isn’t covered by snow when driving down highways in North Dakota, but there are some pretty fun billboards.

Last year, if you were driving on I-94 as you approached the west edge of Jamestown, you might have seen billboards like these.

“A large advertising agency out of New York City, Sydney, Australia, that kind of thing. They approached Newman to do kind of an almost like an art project with some strange billboards,” said Jim Englund, operations manager of Newman Outdoor Advertising.

The signs popped up with different art featuring 12 different prints.

“We did that, they asked that we take photos from the same position every time they change copy and they went through a whole bunch of different really bizarre ads,” said Englund.

Englund thinks the sign near Sydney, North Dakota went up because the founder of the advertising agency, Droga5 Advertising Company, was from Sydney, Australia, and wanted billboards near a place with the same name.

“I think because of the connection to Sydney, I did my research, I Googled it, and there are only so many places in the world that are named Sydney that are spelled the same as Sydney, Australia. We were probably the most reasonable advertising rates,” said Englund

One sign stood out from all the others.

“The hot dogs because that got the most people talking and the most inquiries,” said Englund.

Englund adds the billboards had phones ringing off the hook and created an increase in emails.

Newman Outdoor Advertising is also responsible for the signs with happy messages like “Be Nice” around the state.

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