Barn advertisement

File:Mailpouch8466.jpg in southern Ohio]]

File:Rock City Barn on U.S. Highway 411 South, in Sevier County, Tennessee.JPG barn in Sevier County, Tennessee]]

File:Ohio Bicentennial Barn, Dorset Township, Ashtabula County, Ohio.jpg]]

A barn advertisement is an outdoor advertisement painted onto the exterior of a roadside barn. Advertisers take advantage of the barns' prominence in rural landscapes, paying their owners for the right to paint and maintain logos and slogans on them.{{cite news|title=Demolition uncovers Mail Pouch ad |first=Carole Gilbert |last=Brown |work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |location=Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |publisher=Block Communications |date=2008-07-24 |url=http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08206/898898-57.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120121014429/http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08206/898898-57.stm |archive-date=2012-01-21 }} Painters of barn advertisements and other murals are known as "wall dogs".{{cite web |title=Bicentennial Barns |publisher=Madison County, New York, Planning Department |year=2006 |page=2 |access-date=January 1, 2015 |url=https://www.madisoncounty.ny.gov/Bicent/BarnBroc.small.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150101040657/https://www.madisoncounty.ny.gov/Bicent/BarnBroc.small.pdf |archive-date=January 1, 2015 }} Once a common form of billboard advertising in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States during the early– to mid–20th century, barn advertisements have faded into obscurity, as many of these rural ghost signs fall into disrepair, along with the structures that bear them.{{sfn|Simmonds|2004|p=113}}

Advertisers

Common barn advertisers include local roadside attractions, restaurants, and chewing tobacco manufacturers.

The Bloch Brothers Tobacco Company is credited with popularizing the medium. The company began advertising their products on the sides of buildings in 1890. By 1925, they had moved to advertising on Mail Pouch Barns. At the program's height in the early 1960s, some 20,000 barns in 22 states displayed Mail Pouch advertising, with the greatest number in Ohio.{{sfn|Simmonds|2004|p=18}} Most of the barns were painted by Harley Warrick. Competitors such as Red Man and Hillside Tobacco also painted barns in smaller numbers.{{cite book|first=Geoffrey|last=Nunberg|title=The Way We Talk Now: Commentaries on Language and Culture|year=2001|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Reference|isbn=0-618-11603-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/waywetalknowcom00nunb/page/32 32]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/waywetalknowcom00nunb/page/32}}{{sfn|Simmonds|2004|p=116}}

In the early 1940s,{{sfn|Simmonds|2004|p=117}} Clark Byers painted barns and their roofs for Rock City near Chattanooga, Tennessee, often with messages promising travelers the chance to see seven states from atop Lookout Mountain. Byers painted advertisements for the attraction on over 900 barn roofs in 19 states.{{cite news|title=Rock City painter left mark on South|first=Gregory|last=Tucker|work=The Tennessean|location=Nashville, Tennessee|publisher=Gannett Company|date=2009-09-07|access-date=2009-09-09|url=http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090907/NEWS01/909070326}} {{Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=H3llBot}}

More recently, Bob Evans Restaurants painted barns in Indiana and Illinois in a style identical to their billboards, until 2001.{{sfn|Simmonds|2004|p=115}} The restaurant chain later painted some barns with the Italian tricolor to advertise their pasta dishes.{{cite press release|title=Bob Evans Restaurants Ad Campaign Behind Italian-Painted Barns |publisher=Bob Evans Farms (Restaurant News Resource) |date=2006-10-02 |access-date=2011-04-06 |url=http://www.restaurantnewsresource.com/article24384Bob_Evans_Restaurants_Ad_Campaign_Behind_Italian_Painted_Barns.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719100753/http://www.restaurantnewsresource.com/article24384Bob_Evans_Restaurants_Ad_Campaign_Behind_Italian_Painted_Barns.html |archive-date=2011-07-19 }} Frisch's Big Boy also advertised on barns at one point.{{sfn|Simmonds|2004|p=97}}

From 1997 to 2002,{{cite encyclopedia|title=Ohio Bicentennial Barns|encyclopedia=Ohio History Central|date=2005-07-01|access-date=2011-04-06|url=http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1725| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110427014735/http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1725| archive-date= 27 April 2011 | url-status= live}} the Ohio Bicentennial Committee commissioned Scott Hagan to paint 101 barns,{{cite web|title=Ohio Bicentennial Barns |first=Mike |last=MacCarter |work=Ohio Barns |date=2007-12-27 |access-date=2011-04-06 |url=http://www.ohiobarns.com/ohbarns/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726134031/http://www.ohiobarns.com/ohbarns/ |archive-date=2011-07-26 }} including one in each county, with the committee's logo and colors. One was destroyed by a tornado shortly after its painting and was replaced. A few have since been torn down or repainted.{{cite web|title=Ottawa Co |first=Mike |last=MacCarter |work=Ohio Barns |date=2009-07-01 |access-date=2011-04-06 |url=http://www.ohiobarns.com/ohbarns/obicbarott.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726133913/http://www.ohiobarns.com/ohbarns/obicbarott.html |archive-date=2011-07-26 }} The painted barns celebrated the state's 200th anniversary in 2003. Each barn took about 18 hours of labor and {{convert|7|gal}} of paint.{{cite news|title=Warren County: Come see painting of Ohio barn|first=Randy|last=McNutt|work=The Cincinnati Enquirer|publisher=Gannett Company|date=April 13, 2002|access-date=January 1, 2015|url=http://enquirer.com/editions/2002/04/13/loc_mcnutt_warren_county.html}} Enthusiasts traveled from across the state to watch Hagan paint the barns.{{cite news|title=Artist finishes 88-barn tribute|work=The Cincinnati Enquirer|publisher=Gannett Company|agency=Associated Press|date=September 21, 2002|access-date=January 1, 2014|url=http://enquirer.com/editions/2002/09/21/loc_artist_finishes.html}} An estimated one million people saw at least one of the barns.{{cite news |title=The Barn Artist |magazine=Out Here |publisher=Tractor Supply Company |date=Winter 2007 |access-date=January 1, 2015 |url=http://www.tractorsupply.com/out-here_2007-winter_the-barn-artist |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150101072915/http://www.tractorsupply.com/out-here_2007-winter_the-barn-artist |archive-date=January 1, 2015 }}

Since 2009, Hagan has also been commissioned to paint barns with anti-tobacco and breast cancer awareness messages in West Virginia.{{cite magazine|title=Using Old Tobacco's Tactics Against Them in a West Virginia Ad War |first=Andrew |last=Jenner |magazine=Modern Farmer |publisher=Modern Farmer Media |date=July 9, 2014 |access-date=January 1, 2015 |url=http://modernfarmer.com/2014/07/west-virginia-anti-tobacco-movement-taking-cues-retro-tobacco-ads-barns/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150101072423/http://modernfarmer.com/2014/07/west-virginia-anti-tobacco-movement-taking-cues-retro-tobacco-ads-barns/ |archive-date=January 1, 2015 }}

Regulation

In 1965, Congress passed the Highway Beautification Act, which regulated and in some cases removed billboards from the sides of federally funded highways. Barn advertisements were also affected by this legislation, leading owners to paint over them,{{sfn|Simmonds|2004|p=113}} until public outcry led to a 1974 amendment that specifically exempted them as "folk heritage barns". The National Historic Barn Preservation Act of 2001 protects barns 50 years or older from demolition and funds education programs about these structures.{{sfn|Simmonds|2004|p=113}}