I see NPR has caught on to the weirdness that are San Francisco billboards in the AI era. Been watching them get increasingly bonkers between my periodic trips to town since work trips picked up again after peak COVID.
https://www.npr.org/2026/03/18/nx-s1-5746115/billboards-san-francisco-tech-ai-advertising-marketing
Like, yeah, tech ads have plastered SF for years. But I feel like they used to share some space with more mainstream consumer brands. Now it seems like every surface of ad space is occupied by some niche IYKYK oddity or another with a clever-to-them slogan that seems a little desperate to be cool
@lmorchard I was there for the first time a few months ago and it was bewildering. felt like a parallel universe of ads.
Les Orchard
Chris "Crunchy Leaf" Salzman
relsqui