What do you think of ads in the streets?

Do they look good, attract attention, give life

to the city…?

Visual pollution is the term given to unattractive and man-made visual elements of a landscape, or any other thing that a person does not feel comfortable to look at. It generally refers to those elements of the landscape that the community finds unattractive, including buildings, business signs, stoplights and street signs, telephone and utility poles and litter.

Visual pollution, much of it in the form of advertising, is an issue in all the world's large cities. But what is pollution to some is a vibrant part of a city's fabric to others. New York City without Times Square's huge digital billboards or Tokyo without the Ginza's commercial panorama is unthinkable. Piccadilly Circus would be just a London roundabout without its signage. Still, other cities, like Moscow, have reached their limit and have begun to crack down on over-the-top outdoor advertising.

São Paulo Sells Itself

This is how São Paulo looks like now…

…And this!

These are the “actors” in the Clean City story:

Paul Meyer. President of Clear Channel Outdoor for the Americas

Gilberto Kassab. Mayor of São Paulo

Regina Monteiro. São Paulo’s Director of Environment and Urban Landscaping

Who are the “actors” in the

Clean City case?

Some of the available ad money went to the city's free newspapers. The largest portion, however, was invested in the digital out-of-home industry that puts televised and electronic ads in commercial locations and public transport. "The impact of the Clean City law was huge because you had few alternatives in the city other than outdoors" Angelo de Sá Jr., vice president of Indoormidia says. "But from crises come opportunities, and out-of-home advertising is now in bars, in airports, on the metro, on buses, and that has all happened in just 16 months. One industry died and another one was born."

Consequences.

Do you think the Clean City law applies to any major city in the world?

Take sides, should governments ban…

…all outdoor advertisements?…all outdoor and indoor ads – eg. TV?…specific kinds of advertisements?…no advertisement whatsoever?

Should ads for any of these products be

banned?

?