For just a split-second as you zoom by in your vehicle, you’ll catch the perfect alignment of 2D imagery on a billboard and the real, three-dimensional mountains in the background, eliminating advertising to refocus your attention on what’s really important. Set along Gene Autry Trail in California as part of Desert X, an outdoor exhibition of site-specific art installed across the Coachella Valley, the billboard series by Jennifer Bolande demonstrates an unusual form of camouflage.

The installation is particularly effective for the close placement of the billboards, which are glimpsed in quick succession. Real and artificial environments blend together in an illusion that’s particularly effective on a bright, sunny afternoon when the sky is at its bluest. The work is specifically made to be experienced from a passing car, drawing inspiration from an old Burma Shave ad that used sequential placement to create a message that could only be read from a moving vehicle.

‘Visible Distance/Second Sight’ is particularly effective in this desert environment, where most structures are low-lying and there are no towering trees. This setting ordinarily makes billboards pop out from the landscape even more than they would in a city.

Other striking installations in the Desert X series include ‘The Circle of Land and Sky’ by Phillip K. Smith III, a composition of 300 geometric reflectors angled at 10 degrees to engage with the surrounding Sonoran Desert, and ‘Curves and Zigzags’ by Claudia Comte, a series of scuptural freestanding walls.

All photos by Lance Gerber Studio

Billboard-sized paint jobs on buildings that have seen better days give passersby a glimpse of how much fresher and brighter the structure could look with a little care – the ideal advertisement for paint company OBI. They may be promoting a product, but these miniature renovations get their message across by proving what the product can do rather than just plastering photos of it on ugly billboards.

The campaign by Hamburg-based agency Jung Von Matt came about as a result of price wars between independent stores in Germany, causing a sudden increase in unsightly billboards all over the country. OBI, the largest DIY store in Germany, asked “Why do people advertise products that are supposed to make our homes look nicer using adverts that make everything look uglier?”

It’s a refreshing twist on the usual public advertisement, using the old show-don’t-tell method. In some cases, just half a window is included in the re-paint, making it glaringly obvious how much newer and more cheerful the building would look if the whole thing received the same treatment.

These days, as we collectively develop blinders that make conventional ads in public spaces virtually invisible, marketers have to get a lot more creative to be noticed. Check out 300+ shocking, brilliant and unmissable ad campaigns that force us to sit up and pay attention.

Some billboards are just begging to be subverted, while others take us by surprise with their creativity and ingenuity. But whether you hate these humongous advertising platforms or think they’re an important part of modern society, billboards probably aren’t going away anytime soon. That’s why design team Apostrophy’s has attempted to make them more multi-purpose with the intriguing Billboard House.

Currently on display in Bangkok, Thailand for the Baan Iae Suan Fair, ‘Billboard House’ preserves the current advertising function of billboards, but adds an extra element: an elevated private domicile. Apostrophy’s explains that all three parties would benefit from this arrangement: the advertisers and billboard agencies who still get what they need out of the billboard, and the owner/dweller, who gets an extra income from the advertising rent.

The multi-story home is surprisingly spacious, and the views certainly can’t be beat. Rather than a conventional billboard post, the home sits on a trailer base that enables it to be moved when necessary. Solar cells on the roof provide energy, and the rails offer space to grow hydroponic plants.

While not everyone would be crazy about having their home plastered with ads (especially if those ads were offensive or objectionable), such an arrangement democratizes the space that is currently given over to advertisig in cramped urban locations, making smart use of it. That is, as long as these homes are replacing existing billboards and not just adding even more visual clutter.