‘Iconic' Yahoo! Billboard Coming Down

No More Yahoo!

It's not 1999 anymore, Dorothy. It's not even 2001.

The Yahoo! billboard seen by hundreds of thousands of motorists every day as they approach the Bay Bridge on Interstate-80 -- the neon, retro-styled flashy one, you've seen it -- is coming down at the end of the month.

The billboard, built during the first dot.com boom and a stark memory of the fast money during that time, is a "San Francisco icon," according to The Egotist. Yahoo! did not comment as to why they're letting go of what was -- and is -- hard-to-get, prime billboard space, but an executive for Clear Channel Outdoor, which owns the billboard, confirmed that it is available "starting in December 2011."

The idea was to look exactly like a retro motel ad -- replete with VACANCY sign and chaser lights -- but some of the retro feel still seen on ads like the Coca-Cola billboard in San Francisco cannot be replicated. Ad firm Black Rocket had to rent a prop house in the Midwest in order to house all the parts once they were found, according to an interview with Steve Stone and Robert Boyce, who were co-creative director and media director, respectively, at the firm when the billboard went up.

Said Boyce to Egotist, "San Francisco is losing what has turned into an icon. That board pre-dates 9/11, Pac Bell Park, Facebook, etc."

"We still show it meetings and people still love the story and the work," Stone added. "It will endure more than anything else from the dot.com era I believe."

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