Sao Paulo law bans billboards

[Larry Pubes]

a few months old, but crazy shit..me likey...

 

 

Billboard ban in São Paulo angers advertisers

 

New 'clean city' law angers advertisers

 

 

SÃO PAULO: 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.

But in proposing to transform the landscape, officials have unleashed debate and brought into conflict sharply differing concepts of what this city, South America's largest and most prosperous, should be.

City planners, architects and environmental advocates have argued enthusiastically that the prohibition, through a new "clean city" law, brings São Paulo a welcome step closer to an imagined urban ideal.

The law is "a rare victory of the public interest over private, of order over disorder, aesthetics over ugliness, of cleanliness over trash," Roberto Pompeu de Toledo, a columnist and author of a history of São Paulo, wrote in the weekly newsmagazine Veja. "For once in life, all that is accustomed to coming out on top in Brazil has lost."

 

But advertising and business groups regard the legislation as injurious to society and an affront to their professions. They say that free expression will be inhibited, jobs will be lost and consumers will have less information on which to base purchasing decisions. They also argue that streets will be less safe at night with the loss of lighting from outdoor advertising.

"This is a radical law that damages the rules of a market economy and respect for the rule of law," said Marcel Solimeo, chief economist of the Commercial Association of São Paulo, which has 32,000 members. "We live in a consumer society and the essence of capitalism is the availability of information about products."

The statute's most visible impact promises to be at eye level and above. The outsized billboards and screens that dominate the skyline, promoting everything from automobiles, jeans and cellphones to banks and sex shops, will have to come down. All other forms of publicity in public spaces, like distribution of fliers, will also stop.

The law also regulates the dimensions of store signs, and will force many well-known companies to reduce them substantially by a formula based on the size of their facades. Another provision, much criticized by owners of transportation companies, outlaws advertising of any kind on the sides of the city's thousands of buses and taxis.

The law, as passed, also applied to advertising banners trailed by airplanes and ads on blimps. But in the first of what promises to be a long series of legal challenges, a court ruled the clause unconstitutional on the grounds that the federal government, not the city, controls airspace.

"What we are aiming for is a complete change of culture," said Roberto Tripoli, president of the City Council and one of the main sponsors of the legislation. "Yes, some people are going to have to pay a price. But things were out of hand and the population has made it clear it wants this."

The law, approved by a vote of 45 to 1 in September, goes into effect on Jan. 1. Opponents complain that the date does not allow enough time for merchants to comply, that fines of up to $4,500 for violations are extreme and that the result will inevitably be a diminishing of urban life — "like New York without Times Square or Tokyo without the Ginza," Solimeo said.

"I think this city is going to become a sadder, duller place," said Dalton Silvano, who cast the sole dissenting vote and is in the advertising business. "Advertising is both an art form and, when you're in your car or alone on foot, a form of entertainment that helps relieve solitude and boredom."

This is not the city's first effort to regulate outdoor advertising. A few years ago it was prohibited in the historic downtown area. But there have been complaints about inspectors taking bribes and advertisers simply flouting the law.

"All our efforts to negotiate have had no effect because none of the accords and agreements we reached with the advertising sector were ever complied with," Mayor Gilberto Kassab said in an interview. "A billboard that was forced to come down would be back up a week later in a different spot. There was a climate of impunity."

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. (more...)

[swedish erotica]

this sounds really stupid.

[Torquemada]

but duuudez wer r dey gunna putz there graphities?!?

[Theo Huxtable.]

they need to do this states. seriously.

[the gulliest]

Even without billboards, we are constantly bombarded with advertisements. Any time you see any type of product, a car, a shirt, a watch, a bottle of water, a fence, sunglasses, etc.. you're seeing an advertisement. So its not like people would stop buying things if there weren't big ass billboards telling them to. They'd still be exposed to the product, and if its something people actually need they're going to buy it no matter what. Graff can somewhat be an outlash against the bombardment of advertisement. If they get such a loud voice, why don't we? Well we can, bomb your message.

 

Anyways, I think its a great idea. And yeah graff will stand out so much more, the businesses might start doing guerilla marketing, though, like sony did with the psp.

[Level27PyroMancer]

oh snap, do you write the graffiti?

[Harvey Wallbanger]

Awesome. Fuck "outdoor advertising".

[Juan Fuentes]

more free sky space,more relaxing,more city view,less distraction,less money wasting

good idea no doubt.

[Dawood]

friggin' hippies, go to the park if you want to relax. Me , I'm guerilla advertising with my spray can and rollers all day. What a bunch a weirdos!

[creep3]

I don't think its a bad idea personally.