Hope Springs eternal

A billboard has been abandoned on Victory Blvd. in Van Nuys, CA.

It's the billboard you see above, and it's for a movie that was released in theaters last August 8th, over five months ago. And that detail isn't going to be lost on anyone, since the billboard itself specifies the release month.

If anyone thought that maybe they left it up to advertise the DVD release of Hope Springs, well, we're nearly a month-and-a-half past that as well.

I've noticed advertisements come down too quickly (before the movie has even been released) and linger on way too long (maybe a month after the movie came out). But rarely have I seen the kind of pure neglect that I'm seeing in this case.

I drive east down Victory Blvd. most days on my way home from work, and each day I still see it there, nearing the intersection of Van Nuys Blvd. In fact, I resolved to write about this unusual scenario a couple months ago, but vowed to wait until it finally came down to see how long its stay would ultimately be.

Today I realized that you tend not to notice something not being there, so this might be a flawed strategy anyway. And I ended up having a free morning with nothing else to write about. I'll still hope to notice when it finally comes down and inform you of that fact.

Any number of factors could be at play here, but the most likely is that the ownership of this billboard has entered into some kind of limbo, meaning no new transactions can occur on it -- and leading to a lengthy period of (unnecessary in this case) free advertising for whomever happened to be the final occupant of the real estate. I have to wonder if it's also not considered to be an undesirable location for a billboard, as the approach to it is partly blocked by another billboard (or sign, or some other kind of obstruction).

In either case, it's starting to look like Hope Springs may still be around when spring springs ... and possibly even when the August release date on the billboard could logically be referencing August 2013.