Over the last year, I’ve noticed that you don’t see as much posted advertising in Germany as you do in the US. Certainly you almost never see a full sized billboard along a highway here. Sure, there’s advertisements on bus stops and benches, and posted on buildings near major roadways, but the big billboard sign isn’t a thriving species here.
The cylinder of advertisement, however, is everywhere:
I find the cylinders to be fascinating, because they contain so much information, and yet they’re still wildly ineffective for advertising. If you’re driving past in a car, would you really catch more than a word or two off of this ad-pole?
Is the advertising where you live different or unusual than what you’re used to?
Whimsy. Tacos. The DMV. 
I feel the same way about bus stop ads here. They usually have tiny handwriting or obscure messages… like (recently) tips on safe driving. The only people who can read those signs are those who ride the bus!
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I don’t think the advertising on the cylinders is supposed to be aimed at drivers — only a small portion of it can face a street. Where I see them in Berlin they are clearly aimed at pedestrians.
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I agree with Adam. North Americans are so used to experiencing life from behind the steering wheel, they get disoriented when they see a city built for real people, with signposts like this that you can walk around and spend time reading. And hey! What’s that over there – is that a sidewalk? How very quaint! 🙂
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Though there are fewer billboards, there are more traffic signs, no?
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I love the giant tubes! I agree that they are more geared to pedestrians. Sometimes the places I spot them don’t even have roads. They also use the tubes in the Czech Republic.
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Your post made me think about why those cylinders carry that beautiful name “Litfaßsäule”. They were actually invented by a printer from Berlin about 150 years ago. Wikipedia has a nice article on it (German version is a lot more detailed). http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litfa%C3%9Fs%C3%A4ule
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We had those round post son my campus and I NEVER looked at them. I also notice that a lot of the German advertisements for bigger brands are in English
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I remember those from when I was stationed in Kaiserslautern. I always stopped and looked them over for live music information. They were usually along the Walkplatz or in similar places. There were a few billboards, but not many. Posters in shop windows seemed larger though.
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