2007-05-14

São Paulo sans ads

IMG_6091 Originally uploaded by Tony de Marco.

I read about this a while ago, and finally found some cool pictures of it… the entire city has banned advertising in public space. From onthecommons:

As Brazilian journalist Robert Pompeu de Toledo wrote, the ad ban is “a rare victory of the public interest over private, of order over disorder, aesthetics over ugliness, of cleanliness over trash. For once in life, all that is accustomed to coming out on top in Brazil has lost.”

The article also refers to a project called Delete! in Vienna, which covered ads and signage all in the same color wrapping.

1 comment:

joshie said...

Right now I'd say the skeletal remains of billboards and other signs are uglier than the ads probably were. But I'm sure that will change over time. This would never happen in the U.S. of course. I find it hard to believe that commercialism had run as rampant there as is implied, yet this banned passed 45-1 in the City Council. . . have they no lobbyists?