This paper considers the interplay between outdoor advertising and the urban environment. This is conceptualised as a movement from traditional, two-dimensional outdoor advertising, through three dimensional and four dimensional, towards a more overt multimodal perspective. The paper highlights a series of interesting ontological shifts relating the visual, embodied and performative function of such advertising signs, whereby product marketing begins to increasingly incorporate place, encompassing a sophisticated use of ‘spatiality’ (e.g. buildings and spaces) as well as ‘temporality’ (e.g. movement and mapping) as integral elements of communications strategy. With emerging technology, we begin to observe an emphasis towards ‘interactive out-of-home experience’ (e.g. through locative and social media). This paper contributes to the debate in arguing that these aspects (in isolation or in combination) have the potential to change the relationship(s) between outdoor advertising, the urban environment and its people, with potentially very significant implications not only for marketing activity, but also our relationships with the towns and cities we inhabit. The paper concludes by introducing three tendencies – towards spectacle, portal and fluid space – as key constituents of present and future forms of outdoor advertising.
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