It all began with Murph, the “Muffler Prince,” who posed on his backstreet billboard clad in only a diaper and a pair of fancy cowboy boots. The beloved Aurora Crimpanfortis transformed this hayseed into an international icon by relocating to the busy I-5 corridor and transforming the display into a 350-foot hydraulic lift, just like in the garage. As the gargantuan billboard went up and down, diaper-clad stunt people bounced on bungee cords onto the Interstate. And that was how “Live-Action...

Join us as we talk about the first night that “Live-Action Billboards” came into existence. Like a lot of other things in life, it was neither planned nor staged. It just sort of happened. And it grew organically until becoming the phenomenon it is today. Indeed, you can’t travel far on our nation’s freeways and Interstates without being exposed to the wonderful, whimsical, enchanting, enlightening, illuminating and breathtaking displays. The Crimpanfortis family does things right, pulling out...

You hear a lot about interactive these days. Everything is seemingly interactive this or interactive that. The deeper you enmesh the audience into your sales proposition, the better the company’s bottom line. The Crimpanfortis media empire was built on interactivity, starting with the newspaper network way back when. Find out how this stable of media-savvy editors started embedding clues into stories so that readers could realize vast riches from national prizes based on having the correct...

It’s not easy being me, it never was and probably never will be. What compounds the problem is the people around me – mainly my family. Oh sure, they want the best for me. Or maybe it’s what will make them look the best. When things come so easily for them, they can’t for the life of them understand why I can’t follow suit. Heck, I was even lousy as a high school mascot. But striking out on my own and forging a career – are you serious? By the way . . . did I mention that Daddy is worth...

We have clawed and scratched our way back from the solar flare attack that nearly took the world down. We may not be contemplating trips to other galaxies just yet, but at least the traffic lights work. And we still may be a little lax on recursive algorithms and beam stack searches, but our dedicated techs have resuscitated the venerable fax machine. So while we’re not exactly communicating at warp speed, we’re not reduced to fumbling around in the dark either. And you thought unpaved...