They both have the reputation of being ignorable. An afterthought. Easily discarded. This campaign pushes back.
Jaxxon Promotions has been advertising on Lancaster, PA billboards for a while. That part’s not news. What’s new is who built this one. They tapped us and asked for something compelling and unexpected! Something that hits at the core of what they’re doing and subverts a few expectations along the way.
Two categories, one low bar.
Most billboards don’t address the advertiser’s problems in a meaningful way. Same layout, same stock photo, same headline nobody’s finishing before the next exit. Most branded merch falls into the same trap—forgettable, slap-a-logo-on-it products: the pen that skips, the tote that rips, the stress ball that ends up in a landfill within the week. Different industries, same quiet agreement: safe and cookie-cutter are the defaults, and few are holding either one to a higher standard.
While we figured we had a thing or two in common with Jaxxon—after hearing their story, we realized that the parallels went much, much deeper.
Where we went from there.
We didn’t go with the safe version—obviously. No logo-and-headline template, no generic product shot—doing the bare minimum. Three boards, one idea, no copy explaining the joke—just something designed to catch a driver at 65 miles an hour and hold on a beat longer than it’s supposed to.
That’s the harder brief. Getting noticed once isn’t terribly difficult. Getting noticed by someone who’s trained themselves to tune all of this out is where it gets fun. It’s where we in the industry have the potential to blow up our clients’ and their audience’s notions of billboard advertising.
The standard behind it.
None of that works if the product’s the same seen-a-hundred-times default everyone expects. An ad is only as good as the company it represents, and Jaxxon sources real quality. They back every piece with full customization, done right—not the ho-hum version most promo companies ship out. They listen to their clients and work hard to solve their unique problems in fun and unexpected ways—just like us.
Insider’s Note: Shout out to Oaktree Outdoor who is collaborating with Up To Something on this project.
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