Windows gets free advertising from the Las Vegas hotel Fontainebleau

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The Hotel Fontainebleau displayed a Windows desktop on the Las Vegas strip.

Images of the Hotel Fontainebleau showing Windows desktop on its sign
Windows got some free advertising on the Las Vegas strip thanks to the Hotel Fontainebleu (Image credit: ShawnTempesta)

What you need to know

  • Currently under construction, the Hotel Fontainebleau has a large LED sign to advertise on the Las Vegas Strip.  
  • The LED sign displayed a Windows Desktop on the night of October 21st. 
  • Technical issues like this show the ubiquity of Windows and offer free advertising for the operating system.

As we move closer and closer to a future where Bladerunner meets Cyberpunk 2077 and these corporations invest in enormous LED signs to captivate and advertise to the masses, it's always funny to see the cracks in the corporate visage show through. 

X (Twitter) user @ShawnTempesta posted some images of the humble Windows operating system powering this enormous and expensive LED sign and thanks to this post from @MaximumVegasYT on X (Twitter) we know this isn't the first time this sign has displayed a Windows desktop either. 

Are large LED displays the future for city skylines?

It's hard to argue against the effectiveness of displaying a large advertisement for the city of Las Vegas to see. Just last week, Xbox effectively advertised some of their newest and most popular games on the Las Vegas Sphere. This advertising choice had a large effect online, reaching far beyond the geographical location that the Sphere occupies. When looking at the Las Vegas Sphere and now the quite large LED sign being tested for the under-construction Fontainebleau hotel, it's exciting and a bit worrying as the comparisons to dystopian sci-fi movies such as Bladerunner and Minority Report come to mind. 

With the success of the Sphere in Las Vegas, MSG announced a second Sphere is being built in London. These types of buildings and signs offer great spectacle but as we see from the Windows desktop showing on the Hotel Fontainebleau, we still have quite a way to go before we catch up to flying cars and personalized advertisements as we see in a lot of sci-fi movies. 

The cyber-security side of my brain immediately jumped to the fact that if this sign is running Windows, it could be a lot more susceptible to vulnerabilities and defacement by hacktivists than if it was a more secure operating system. Even the fact that the world now knows what operating system it is using makes it more of a target. Who knows maybe we will see a Just Stop Oil defacement on the Fontainebleau sign in the future. 

Would you want a Sphere or large LED sign in your city? Do you think these billion-dollar corporations should use a bespoke operating system for these signs? Let us know in the comments. 

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Colton Stradling
Colton Stradling
Contributor

Colton is a seasoned cybersecurity professional that wants to share his love of technology with the Windows Central audience. When he isn’t assisting in defending companies from the newest zero-days or sharing his thoughts through his articles, he loves to spend time with his family and play video games on PC and Xbox. Colton focuses on buying guides, PCs, and devices and is always happy to have a conversation about emerging tech and gaming news. 

5 Comments Comment from the forums
  • wojtek
    > It's hard to argue against the effectiveness of displaying a large advertisement for the city of Las Vegas to see. Just last week,

    While true - it's darn effective, I love current trend and push towards banning marketing /ads in public spaces as its just visual noise ruining most of the cities (save for Las Vegas, which was basically built atop of such crap 😅)
    Reply
  • jlzimmerman
    Would you want a Sphere or large LED sign in your city? Do you think these billion-dollar corporations should use a bespoke operating system for these signs? Let us know in the comments.

    It's great advertisment but terrible for light pollution which is already a huge problem.
    Reply
  • Colton Stradling
    Those are some great points. Light pollution and visual noise are definitely an issue that should be considered. It reminds me of Daredevil on Netflix where Daredevil lives in an apartment across from a huge neon sign and he was able to get the apartment for cheap because he wasn't bothered by the visual noise ruining the apartment for everybody else.
    Reply
  • wojtek
    Well, small comparison from my corner of the universe - in Poland there is push to ban/curb public advertisement (obviously there is awful pushback from marketing companies). Majority of those are luckily not neon/LED/light but still it makes a lot of difference - here's an article with comparison before/after: https://www.trojmiasto.pl/wiadomosci/Metamorfoza-Wrzeszcza-po-uchwale-krajobrazowej-n152416.html (use the slider). IMHO cities without ads looks way, way better...
    Reply
  • HelloNNNewman
    wojtek said:
    Well, small comparison from my corner of the universe - in Poland there is push to ban/curb public advertisement (obviously there is awful pushback from marketing companies). Majority of those are luckily not neon/LED/light but still it makes a lot of difference - here's an article with comparison before/after: https://www.trojmiasto.pl/wiadomosci/Metamorfoza-Wrzeszcza-po-uchwale-krajobrazowej-n152416.html (use the slider). IMHO cities without ads looks way, way better...
    Wow.... I love those after pics on the slider comparisons. All of that constant in-you-face advertising is so ugly you forget how peaceful and pleasant areas look without it all!
    Reply