If you think Interstate 4 traffic is bad now, imagine what happened when an alien landed next to the road.
That’s what occurred in February 1989 when E.T.-The Extra Terrestrial arrived in Orlando in billboard form to promote the opening of Universal Studios Florida.
Reporter Debbie Salamone wrote one of several Sentinel stories in 1989 about the popularity of the roadside ad. “E.T.’s two hands and 800-pound head hang over the billboard,” she said. “Every few seconds his index finger glows red.”
“I think everybody’s looking at that sign,” Orlando police officer Trina Frye told Salamone. “I guess they are just curious and think it is cute.”
The E.T. billboard was located on the west side of I-4 near the Fairbanks Avenue exit. Curious drivers slowed their cars to a crawl to get a good look at it, causing traffic jams on the interstate. Some would even pull over on the side of the road to take pictures of it.
“When you hear that, it sounds great. Of course, you don’t want accidents,” Tom Guttman, chief of the E.T. billboard design team with the Foote, Cone & Belding ad agency, told the Sentinel, “but you know you’ve done your job.”
An Orlando Sentinel story from March 9, 1989 reports on the popularity of the E.T. billboard on Interstate 4. (Orlando Sentinel file)
While the giant E.T. grabbed attention, the intent was for folks to read the words on the billboard, too: “Fly with me. Universal Studios. Orlando 1990,”
Bill Howard, VP of advertising for Universal at the time, said he hoped drivers would notice the sign but didn’t expect it to cause a traffic problems. “He said be believes traffic will resume its normal pace once residents get used to seeing E.T. on Earth,” Salamone wrote.
The E.T. billboard remained an eye-catcher into the early 2000s until an I-4 widening project displaced the beloved alien. Maybe he finally went home?
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