Small businesses across the country have been hit especially hard from COVID-19, and in Portland, Oregon, where local businesses are a cultural pillar, hundreds of miniature billboards are popping up all over to help answer the city’s SOS: Save our Shops.
North conceived and produced the itty bitty billboards as part of a pro bono campaign to ask Portlanders to put their money where their heart is and shop local. The miniature billboards stand 12.5 inches high and 7 inches wide. There are multiple executions including “Size Matters. Support Portland’s small businesses,” and “Keep Portland small. Support your neighborhood businesses.” North and an army of volunteers are placing these tiny billboards across the city, atop planter boxes, picnic tables and free little libraries where people would see them on their new commute: their daily walk around the neighborhood.
The billboards are part of PDXSOS, a program of Bricks Need Mortar, which serves as a hub for encouraging people to both lend support to the businesses they already love and discover new favorites, including many Black, Indigenous, People of Color and Women-owned businesses. With many stories of the shortcomings of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loans, and economists projecting that nationally up to 40% of small businesses will close permanently, the ultimate goal of PDXSOS is to save local shops.
“Portland small businesses are the victims of a perfect storm. COVID, the peaceful protests, the fear of looting, the forbidding federal presence and alarmist media coverage are keeping folks away from the city and threatening the viability of the businesses that are the creative heart and economic engine of Portland,” says Rebecca Armstrong, CEO of North.
Full-sized versions of the billboards appear on local highways as many, especially essential workers, still drive past them regularly. The accompanying film is in wide distribution on social media.
