a city WITHOUT ads?

This post was pulled from one of my favorite blogs at www.campfiremedia.com

Make sure to watch the case studies above on Beta 7 and Audi: Art of the Heist

There is a remarkable set of photos on flickr from Tony de Marco of São Paulo, Brazil, (population over 10 million), which outlawed all outdoor advertising in December, 2006. The law doesn’t stop at billboards, either. Provisions also ban all other forms of publicity in public spaces, including handling out fliers, ads on busses and taxis, even banners pulled by airplanes and ads on blimps are all outlawed.

This story in the International Herald Tribune has some particularly choice quotes from both sides of the debate.

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.

“Disorder,” “ugliness,” and “trash” may sound harsh, but the population of over 10 million citizens must have agreed or the politicians wouldn’t have bothered.

Perhaps even more startling, however, is the reaction from the advertising industry:

“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.”

Wow.