Metro Atlanta Billboard Prompts 911 Calls

An Outback Steakhouse sign on I-85 in Norcross, Ga., touting its wood-fire grilled steaks, is doing it's job and sending people into a tizzy, but for the wrong reason.

Several motorists driving on the Georgia Interstate called 911 to report that the billboard was on fire! It is indeed smoking, but it's not actually on fire. It is just an illusion generated by smoke machines embedded in the sign.

As you can see from the sign, it is smoke that is coming out of the wood pictured on the sign.  I think it's genius.

This brings to mind one time I was in Los Angeles and a movie studio wrapped a building in L.A. to promote a movie, must have been Deep Impact or Armageddon, or a similar movie.  Well, the building wrap made it look like there was a hole in the building.  Motorists on the freeways started calling asking about it and it snarled traffic even more than usual. 

They eventually had to remove the wrap on the building, but it did generate a ton of publicity.