An air carrier pilot reported confusing; very bright multicolor lights off the end of ord runway 10C...

Narrative:

While on approach to runway 10C there were some very distracting lights at what looked like far end of airport. Changing color from red to white and others. Really bright and 100's of feet horizontal. They were 3 times as bright as any other lights on the field and caused confusion as to what and where they were coming from. After landing it became clear that they were electronic billboard signs just on the east side of the airport; so close as to cause confusion that they might be on the field. The next day I noticed they were on the building with signage of 'fashion outlets chicago.'there needs to be a review to see if they are in compliance with regulations of lights close to airports? I have seen this problem in a lot of areas that get these electronic billboards installed and either there is no brightness adjustment in the design and it stays full bright. Or the adjustment is left full bright to catch attention without regard to drivers of cars or in this case airplanes. At the very least; if adjustable; they should be required to turn them down. Ideally; the signs should be removed or require less total light output by design. I live in a town that has an ordinance against bright electronic billboards. I have seen many that have a controlled light output based on ambient light so as not to be so glaring in given light conditions i.e. Day/night.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier pilot reported confusing; very bright multicolor lights off the end of ORD Runway 10C which were apparently non-dimmable advertising lights.

Narrative: While on approach to Runway 10C there were some very distracting lights at what looked like far end of airport. Changing color from red to white and others. Really bright and 100's of feet horizontal. They were 3 times as bright as any other lights on the field and caused confusion as to what and where they were coming from. After landing it became clear that they were electronic billboard signs just on the East side of the airport; so close as to cause confusion that they might be on the field. The next day I noticed they were on the building with signage of 'FASHION OUTLETS CHICAGO.'There needs to be a review to see if they are in compliance with regulations of lights close to airports? I have seen this problem in a lot of areas that get these electronic billboards installed and either there is no brightness adjustment in the design and it stays full bright. Or the adjustment is left full bright to catch attention without regard to drivers of cars or in this case airplanes. At the very least; if adjustable; they should be required to turn them down. Ideally; the signs should be removed or require less total light output by design. I live in a town that has an ordinance against bright electronic billboards. I have seen many that have a controlled light output based on ambient light so as not to be so glaring in given light conditions i.e. day/night.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1258318
Time
Date	201504
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ORD.Airport
State Reference	IL
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Large Transport Low Wing 2 Turbojet Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Final Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter Other / Unknown

An air carrier pilot reported confusing; very bright multicolor lights off the end of ord runway 10C which were apparently non-dimmable advertising lights.