A new billboard has been installed along the Yates Street frontage of the Telus-owned BC Telephone Company building. Photo © by VibrantVictoria.ca.

The Telus-owned BC Telephone Company building at 826 Yates has a new exterior feature that is sure to bring more attention to the otherwise nondescript facade.

A giant billboard advertising Telus’ mobile telephone network, complete with bunnies and a hippopotamus, was installed Sunday afternoon across almost half of the building’s Yates Street frontage.

“We were not contacted about the billboard, but I understand that the City has a signage bylaw that has been in effect for several decades and which controls how businesses can promote themselves,” said Robert Randall of the Downtown Victoria Residents’ Association, when asked if he was aware of any details pertaining to the sudden promotional installation.

While it may be one of the largest, the new Telus advertisement is not the first of its kind in the downtown area. Displayed at the corner of the Government Street frontage of Vancouver Island Brewery’s headquarters near Bay Street, a billboard promotes one of the brewery’s offerings and has done so for quite some time.  Promoting movies and exhibitions, the Royal British Columbia Museum’s 13-storey archives tower displays up to two giant billboards overlooking the Inner Harbour.

The capital may not have stand-alone billboards as seen in Vancouver and Nanaimo alongside busy traffic arteries, however, the entire region is already adorned with bus shelter advertising, public transit bus advertising and in recent years has seen the arrival of mobile advertising trucks.

Stay tuned to VibrantVictoria.ca’s discussion thread on billboards and advertising for more information on this story as it develops.

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