See It To Believe It: Orange-Powered Billboard
Well, an advertising agency from France has done it. An impressive, innovative feat based on some well-founded principles of science: the orange-powered Tropicana billboard that is lit by energy obtained from the thousand oranges that fill its insides.
So how did they do it?
Before we tackle that, do you remember those experiments that you had to do when you were still in high school or those class demonstrations that your science or chemistry did in front of the class? You know, the one that involves some sort of food item (usually juicy fruits) and some nails and wire powering up a small light bulb? I remember the "oohs" and "ahhs" generated from the class the moment the small bulb flickered to life. Of course this was simple science on a small scale. And this was also the principle that DDB used in order to make their orange-powered billboard come to life.
Citrus fruits are acidic in nature (you gotta love that citric acid) and their juices are also known to conduct electricity. Imagine a large-scale project based on that experiment we talked about earlier, and boom. You've got your billboard.
It wasn't an easy feat for DDB. The entire project actually took over 3 months and, we imagine, a whole lot of oranges before coming up with the final product to show to the world. Aside from the oranges, several thousand spikes of copper and zinc and a whole lot of wiring were thrown into the mix, along with the blood, sweat, and tears of the DDB crew.
Even seeing photos of the orange-filled billboard makes me want to go out and get a bottle of Tropicana. I say the billboard definitely works on me.
Check out this amusing video created by Johnny Hardstaff who also pitched in on the project:
What do you think?
Source: Design Buzz