Mercedes Benz USA is considering moving its US Headquarters from New Jersey to the Southeast.  Word of the possible move has prompted a New Jersey billboard owner to make a public plea for the car maker to stay in the Garden State.  Marty Judge, the co-owner of Judge outdoor has posted the message above on at least two of his billboards there.  Mercedes reportedly employs over 800 people in New Jersey and officials say they are being offered an incentive package from Atlanta worth $40-50 million.  Mercedes is apparently also considering a location in North Carolina.  So far, no word on any Atlanta billboards pleading with Mercedes to settle here.  New Jersey officials say they are also offering incentives for the company to remain there, so they should not be counted out just yet.  A decision on whether Mercedes stays or heads south could come as early as January 6th.  Click here for the full story.

Valdosta State University wants to capture the attention of prospective students in Georgia and North Florida.  After extensive research, the school has launched their new marketing campaign that includes a series of billboards featuring a flaming match.  Officials at Valdosta State say they wanted to stand out in the crowd and they think it’s a great way to tie in their mascot, the “Blazers.”  The goals for the campaign include increasing Valdosta’s visibility and enrollment in the coming years.  The billboards can be seen all along major interstates in both Georgia and North Florida.  For more information on Valdosta State’s campaign, click here.

It spans an entire city block and earned the title of “North America’s Largest Digital Billboard.”  This enormous billboard in New York’s Times Square towers over everyone below…it is eight stories high and 25,000 square feet.  Google bought the space this month and they are making sure it’s one to remember, not only for its size.  Google also made the billboard interactive…there’s a zone set up next to the board where people can create an Android version of themselves and play video games on the screen!  Here’s a video  with more information on the billboard and how much you can expect to pay if you want to buy space.

Luxury German car brands are battling it out on billboards in California.  Until now, the wars have been contained in their home country, but Audi broke what may be an unspoken rule and put up the above billboard in Santa Monica touting its A4 line of cars and challenging BMW to respond.  Not to be outdone, BMW posted its newest 3 series vehicle on a billboard right across the street.

The brands then hit the social media circuit to continue to try and outdo the other, which apparently resulted in some photoshopped pictures and some funny tweets.

But for now, it seems that Audi had the last word.  They replaced the above billboard with a new one that tells BMW “It may be time to check your luxury badge. It may have expired.”

BMW has yet to respond and change its billboard, but maybe their killer response is in the works or they are looking to expand the war to other places, like Atlanta, GA.  To see the photoshopped pic and the entire article, click here.

Asia Durr is taking her skills to the University of Louisville in Kentucky, and the school said thanks in a big way!  Durr was featured on a billboard in her hometown of Douglasville, GA last week.  Durr currently plays the point guard position for St. Pius X in Atlanta and is the no. 2 prospect in espnW Hoop Gurls Super 60 for the 2015 class.  She lead St. Pius X to two straight titles and has had a multitude of big name universities chasing her, including Maryland, Notre Dame, Georgia and Kentucky.  Durr says she picked Louisville “because it felt like home” when she was on campus.  So far, Louisville has 4 commitments from girls in the Super 60, with just 12 prospects remaining undeclared.  For more on Asia Durr, click here.

Students and professors at the University of Engineering and Technology in Lima, Peru designed and built a billboard that can extract potable water from the humidity in the air.  They wanted to address the water shortage created by the area’s changing climate.  Despite being a desert, the area is surprisingly humid, with levels topping out around 98%.  The billboard uses inverse osmosis filtration to collect water from the air and has actually produced over 9,000 liters of water so far.  Residents can access the water through the faucet at the base of the billboard.  Because water is so scarce in this area, the University says it plans to build more billboards just like this one.  With all the humidity here in Atlanta, imagine how much water could be produced if a billboard like this was built here! Click here to watch a video explaining this amazing technology.

Mandie found her match! Earlier this month, Mandie received her life saving kidney transplant…you may remember seeing her face on billboards all around metro Atlanta last year.   Her family says those billboards raised awareness about Mandie’s battle and may have helped other patients, but Mandie’s aunt is the one credited with saving her life.  Catherine Gilleland was not a match for her niece, but she joined a transplant chain and was matched with a patient in Ohio, where a donor was matched to someone in Pennsylvania, and a donor there was matched to Mandie.  She had her transplant on Oct. 2, and is now recovering at home and looking forward to “enjoying simple things.”  Click here to read Mandie’s story and see what message is now being displayed on Atlanta billboards.

In honor of breast cancer awareness month, Piedmont Newnan Hospital in Georgia launched a billboard campaign to raise awareness of the disease and encourage women to get mammograms. CEO Mike Robertson says he adopted the idea from the hospital’s Henry County, Georgia location.  He says there has already been a lot of interest in the campaign around the community and that he’s already gotten calls from several men asking to be featured in next year’s campaign.  “Real Men Wear Pink” is designed to heighten awareness of breast cancer and encourage women to get screened for the disease.  The men featured encourage the women in their lives and around the community and also take part in community events, like the “Pink Out” night at Newnan High School on Oct. 24th.  For more information and a list of the men featured on the billboard, click here.

Georgia Tech’s new multi media marketing campaign is getting noticed!  This initiative is one of three finalists in the 2014 The Outdoor Advertising Association of Georgia (OAAG) Creative Contest.  The “Together We Swarm” campaign involves multiple designs on several billboards around Atlanta.  The billboard designs were developed by Georgia Tech’s Athletic Marketing team….they say their focus was to create a sense of community, a “One GT mentality,” for all involved with the university.   The winner will be announced on Oct. 22nd.

The death of Chick-fil-A’s founder, S. Truett Cathy, was not lost on the restaurant’s infamous cows.  The cows took a break from their usual antics to pay tribute to the chain’s late founder, via their famous billboards in Georgia.  And true to form, their spelling is not the best but they did get his name right.  Truett Cathy passed away last week at his home in Georgia at the age of 93.  He founded his first restaurant in 1946, and went on to open Chick-fil-A in 1967 here in Atlanta, Georgia.