“Since many of today’s best-known manufacturers no longer produce products and advertise them, but rather buy products and ‘brand’ them, these companies are forever on the prowl for creative new ways to build and strengthen their brand images…This requires an endless parade of brand extensions, continuously renewed imagery for marketing and, most of all, fresh new spaces to disseminate the brand’s idea of itself,” Naomi Klein, No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies

When has advertising and branding gone just a bit over-the-top? How about a massive billboard sporting a hat-tipping, giant balding butler that has seemingly blocked out the Columbus skyline along with half the summer sun?
  No doubt American businesses and those who help them advertise have become obsessed with finding and promoting their brand. But with American excess and unfettered capitalism there always comes a cost, and perhaps the newish headquarters of local advertising firm Orange Barrel Media in Franklinton just off I-670 east, and the humongous billboards of its clients that are directly above their new headquarters, are a tad too much. Especially if they appear to visually define Columbus.
  Orange Barrel Media is a local success story for the 21st century as it paved the way in outdoor advertising on a large and eye-popping scale. Their work graces the sides of downtown buildings, and they like to refer to it as “wallscaping” or a “wallscape.” They shun the term “billboards,” and no doubt their downtown 3D-ish wallscapes have been artistic, intriguing and classy. The founder and president is Pete Scantland, a native of Upper Arlington, and his company has offices in Los Angeles, Washington and Boston, to name a few.
  Orange Barrel Media is growing and apparently cocky as it (laughingly) shows a picture of the US Capitol building on the front page of its web site as if the company has designs on cutting a deal with Congress, which of course has never been shy when it comes to selling out to corporations.
  As for Orange Barrel Media’s new headquarters, Scantland told the Columbus Underground, “I think the project is going to be iconic. Our hope is that in five years our large wallscape mural will be viewed as one of the city’s visual modern landmarks in a way that some of our downtown signs have become.”
  Scantland added, “With regard to the structure on top, our intention is to have very restrictive limitations in terms of how much of the display area can be commercial. We will likely model it on the standards we have downtown, where I think it’s fair to say our program has been embraced.”
  The downtown program has been embraced, but any ad proposed for downtown whether a physical billboard or electronic billboard is carefully scrutinized for content and size by the Columbus Downtown Commission, which is part of the city government, but is a review board for downtown development that is staffed by local citizens.
  The commission’s chair is held by Steve Wittmann, owner of the local Wittmann Co., a real estate agency known for its expertise to redevelop industrial or warehouse properties into office and commercial sites. Wittmann told The Free Press he has no opinion on Orange Barrel Media’s Franklinton office and its massive billboards, but he does want Central Ohio to know that the Columbus Downtown Commission is heavily scrutinizing any “wallscape,” or any billboard for that matter, that’s proposed for downtown.
  What makes this significant and relevant to Orange Barrel Media’s Franklinton “wallscapes,” is that they are outside the jurisdiction of the Columbus Downtown Commission, and after asking several Franklinton commercial and businesses organizations, such as the Franklinton Board of Trade, it could not be determined before deadline whether there is any citizen-run scrutiny of the ad content on top of Orange Barrel Media’s headquarters. Which begs to ask, as you travel down I-670 east, will there come a time when you have somehow placed one hand on the wheel and one hand over your child’s eyes so they don’t see the Lion’s Den ad that’s four stories tall?
  Wittmann says as long as he chairs the Downtown Commission, he will try his best to avoid any tacky or controversial ads gracing the sides of downtown buildings.
  “I think it’s safe to say we have to be very careful about this in our jurisdiction,” says Wittmann. “What’s the view of Columbus? Are you going to see a lot of billboards and advertising, or are you going to see a dynamic and artistic urban landscape?”
  Wittmann says the Downtown Commission has several criteria for an ad to get a green light for downtown: the ad has be to artistic, the ad has to have limited text, the ad has to be compatible for its space, and its placement and scale has to be well thought out.
  “We are striving for an interesting and artistic graphic image,” he says, “the work has to enhance an area’s vitality and energy.”
  Orange Barrel Media could not be reached for comment.