Remember the hoopla over Boston’s giant iPod billboard we reported on back in October? Questions arose whether a mayor’s aide had helped a business group obtain permission to erect the ad, despite the objections of the state’s outdoor advertising board and the mayor’s own historic reluctance for such things? The billboard was quietly removed, replaced by a public service mural.
Key to the decision was the Massachusetts Outdoor Advertising Board “deemed [the billboard] illegal because it advertised a product the storage business didn’t sell,” according to the Boston Herald. The ad was located on the side of a self-storage building that along with packing tape and locks, sold iTunes gift cards.
The billboard’s removal comes less than a half-year after the property owner and others paid $110,000 to obtain a one-year extension on a city permit.
In 2008 Apple opened its flagship Boston store.
[Via Boston Herald and 9to5Mac]
