Moving Medium : Driver of Billboards Likes Taking Messages on Road

Gonzo Mery is on the move in the advertising world.

Maneuvering slowly through the streets of San Diego, he drives a strange-looking vehicle that consists of a cab and two 10-by-22-foot billboards leaning against each other. For six to 12 hours a day, Mery moves the large advertisements along the city’s busiest streets.

“It’s a great job if you like driving,” he said. “Sure, there are times when I get bored, but that’s not very often, because of the flexibility of the job. My job is to be seen, so I usually drive where there’s a lot of people. People are real curious about the truck and ask me questions. It’s a great way to meet women, too.”

Mery, who was raised in New Jersey, started working for Prestige Panels, a New York City-based traveling-billboard company, in early 1986. He relocated to Los Angeles a year later, when the company opened a base there.

PPI, the largest traveling-billboard company in the nation, has 46 trucks operating out of eight major U.S. cities: New York, Chicago, Detroit, Washington, Atlanta, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Fort Worth.

Mery works full time for PPI--sometimes more than 70 hours a week, and often on weekends. The hours are long, he said, but not all of them are spent driving. His contract dictates that he park the 4-ton truck for 30 minutes in populated areas where it can be seen, provided commercial vehicles are allowed. There’s no set schedule on when to park.

Has Time to Relax

The schedule doesn’t seem to bother Mery. He said the job allows him freedom and time to relax.

“I’ve always been an outdoors type of person,” he said. “When I’m driving, I always get to see different people and places. When on longer routes, I sometimes crank up the music on my radio, and other times I just like it quiet--meditative.”

Warren Maus, PPI Western regional manager, said it takes a certain kind of person to work as a billboard driver.

“When hiring, we look for a good driving record, personality and punctuality. The driver also represents the products advertised; we want our drivers to be personable,” Maus said. “But we mainly look for someone who likes to travel and is flexible. We have a lot of part-timers, so we’re flexible, too.”

The clients, ad agencies and PPI dictate which routes the drivers will take. Specific audiences are targeted, and drivers are given maps outlining the streets where the moving messages will get maximum exposure.

“Right now I’m driving advertisements for Kahlua,” Mery said. “It’s great because of the audience they’re trying to reach. I get to drive by the beaches and areas where college-age people hang out.”

Because of zoning laws and the banning of billboards in certain cities, Mery said, there are places in which he is not allowed to park. But he isn’t prohibited from driving in those areas.

PPI has had three other clients that wanted their ads circulated in San Diego County: Anheuser-Busch, Southern California Volkswagen and Citicorp. Most of the ads ran about four weeks, but the Budweiser ads ran only during Super Bowl week last January.

Never Had an Accident

Mery said he’s never been in any accidents or had any major problems while driving the billboards.

“I was stopped by police before,” he said. “The officer was just curious and wanted to know what this was all about. It’s surprising how many people stop me to ask what the purpose of the truck and billboards is. I just tell them it’s the truck of the future.”

“Most people say nice things, and the kids are great,” he said. “I get a lot of strange stares, too. It’s amusing, and it keeps me from getting bored. When I was driving ads for Budweiser, I realized just how many people drank and drove. They would stick out their cans of Bud from their car windows and yell, ‘Yeah, Budweiser--all right!’

“I don’t want to drive billboards around for the rest of my life,” Mery said, “but it’s a good job for the passing.”