São Paolo Brazil Bans Public Advertisements

image taken 2 days ago in São Paolo, credit: Tony de Marco

Imagine a modern metropolis with no outdoor advertising: no billboards, no flashing neon signs, no electronic panels with messages crawling along the bottom.

Come the new year, this city of 11 million, overwhelmed by what the authorities call visual pollution, plans to press the “delete all” button and offer its residents unimpeded views of their surroundings.

(…) Since “it is hard in a city of 11 million to find enough equipment and personnel to determine what was and wasn’t legal, we decided to go all the way, to zero things out,” Kassab said. “When you prohibit everything, society itself becomes your partner in enforcing the law” and reporting violations.

I don’t really mind advertisements, especially in large cities where survival-of-the-fittest insures only the best ones rise to the top. On the other hand a city with no ads is an attractive idea.

ARTICLE [“Billboard ban in São Paolo angers advertisers”] (Herald Tribune) IMAGES [more of the above, São Paolo sans ads] (Flickr)