Do motorway billboards signal the first death throes of capitalism? | Adrian Chiles

The ads come and go so fast you have to speed up to watch them – and before you can see them properly they vanish

I glimpse them in the distance just as the M4 readies itself to peter out into west London. They are now to be found along furred-up arterial roads in cities everywhere. They shine so brightly that you can probably see them from space. Up close, they make my eyeballs hurt. But before I get that near, I start reading whatever is being advertised on these enormous electronic billboards flanking the road. I can’t help it; there’s not a lot else to look at.

I assume this is why they are there. Whatever they are trumpeting – a West End show, a shop, a watch, a holiday, a radio show – despite myself, some vague interest in me stirs. Who is that? What is that? What exactly does it say? It’s got me at a weak moment. I’m tired after a long journey, having seen nothing so bright and colourful for perhaps hundreds of miles. I’m grateful to be close to my journey’s end and I am therefore perhaps more suggestible than usual. Easy meat for the advertisers. In some small way, I’m starting to fall for the ad even before I’m close enough to see the exact details of what it is. They are clever these people; they know what they are doing. Except perhaps they don’t, because before I’ve read it properly it vanishes. It has moved on to another show, shop, watch, holiday or something. What’s that all about? It’s as mad as a TV ad – remember them? – being cut off halfway through.

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