Update: Seattle joins state in sinking floating billboards

The state Transportation Department has torpedoed a proposal for floating billboards on Lake Washington in Seattle.

The company's owner said he'll pursue other Seattle waters. However, the Seattle Times reports the city of Seattle says no deal.

The state says trying to grab the attention of floating bridge drivers would violate the law that governs billboards along freeways — the 1971 Scenic Vistas Act. And, Bryan Stevens, customer-service director for the Seattle Department of Planning and Development told the Times that the city's ban extends halfway across the lake.

Dave McCormick, WSDOT’s Assistant Regional Administrator told KING 5 that “we’ve never really had anyone who wanted to advertise from a boat before.”  But he said, after reviewing a KING5 story on a plan to do just that, he believes the advertiser “can be cited for violating the law that governs billboards along freeways.”  State Law reads a violation could be punishable as a misdemeanor crime.

Advertising executive Darren Bruce said on his company’s blog that the floating signs can be placed “on oceans, lakes, golf course water hazards, and other various waterways.”

Bruce told the Seattle television station that he may try to float his billboards on Lake Union in Seattle or along a Puget Sound beach.

Nothing new here ...

Floating billboards are not new to cities on the water. Here's an ad for the idea in Maimi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-Fl3dRxyL0

In Ocean City, Md., one company makes this promise:

Here’s a digital floating billboard in Shanghai that might just give you a seizure … if you were floating by on a peaceful day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILf2G39jw1c

KING 5's story:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou5lcw7v91g