An Ode to the Human Billboard

On a cold spring day, 16-year-old Chad Sathers of Loveland is busy working his part-time job on the corner of a bustling commercial intersection. Pacing back and forth and jumping up and down, Sathers, cloaked in anonymity wearing a sandwich costume, bounces to the beat of his favorite Insane Clown Posse song on his iPod while he enthusiastically waves a large Subway sign advertising foot-long subs for the low limited time price of $5. He’s been yelled at, clowned and even propositioned for sex.

It’s his second day on the job.

“It’s all right,” Sathers said when asked if he enjoyed being a human billboard. “It’s not like it’s hard work or anything.”

Sathers is a junior at Loveland High School and works part-time for a temp agency that lined him up for the job. His prior job was bussing tables at Tortilleria La Autentica, a Mexican restaurant in Loveland, a job he despised.

“That was actual work. Like, dirty, messy work,” Sathers said. “This sh*t is easy. I just stand here and listen to music.”

Sathers is paid $7 an hour and is in the middle of a five-hour shift. He may not know it, but he follows in the footsteps of a long line of human billboards, otherwise known as “human directionals” or sign walkers, going back to the early 19th century. Poor men with little education or job skills were the ones to be found on street corners wearing sandwich boards, advertisements hanging on the front and back of the body attached over the shoulders with rope. With the advent of the automobile, the “human directional” became all but extinct as billboards proved to be more effective to vehicle passengers. However, recent times have seen a resurgence in the age-old profession.

“We’ve noticed a high demand for this type of work over the last couple of years.” said Shaina Vega of Adecco Employment, a temp agency in Fort Collins. "We have a lot of people doing this kind of work around town.”

One reason for the resurgence is that human billboards have proven to be effective. For example, a November 2006 New York Times article by Rebecca Raney reported that during the month of October 2006, nearly 8 percent of the 3,600 people who visited model homes in a housing development in Moreno Valley, Calif. were lured there by people waving advertising from the sidewalk.

Some companies have gone so far as to implement tricks and “signature moves” performed with signs to attract viewer attention. Arrow Advertising LLC of San Diego, founded by sign holders Mike Denny and Max Durovic in 2002, coined the term “sign spinner” to refer to their employees. They conduct a boot camp in order to train them in how to kick, spin, flip and toss six-foot signs. Spinners are paid anywhere from $10 to $20 an hour based on their mastery of tricks.

"It's really become the newest, most exciting form of advertising," said Joe Ambert, the marketing director of Arrow Advertising. "We're taking over the advertising industry with current forms of advertising that traditional agencies can't do."

Arrow’s success has been mammoth considering Denny and Durovic started the company when they were 18 with $100 and some change. Since then the company has branched out into 10 cities nationwide and are looking into expanding to France and England. Sign spinners have been featured on The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch and the Ellen DeGeneres Show performing their vast array of spins and moves, which have been known to result in minor "spinjuries.”

Sathers doesn’t perform any tricks with his sign, nor does he plan on working the job for much longer. He said he’s only doing this until school is over in June, upon which he’ll be getting what he called “a real job.”

“I’ll be working at a couple of different concession stands at baseball fields around town. It’s more work, but also more pay because we get tips,” Sathers said. “This job is not bad though, ‘cause all I do is stand here. I mean, it’s probably the easiest job you can get and I get to listen to whatever I want.”