Bye Bye Billboards

Have spotted this story on a couple of blogs recently: Buenos Aires to Remove 40 Thousand Billboards to Fight Visual Pollution

It seems that the authorities in BA and the body representing advertisers have agreed to new legislation controlling noise pollutions and signage. It is similar to the law change in Sao Paulo that resulted in the widespread reduction in outdoors signs.

In BA, a total of 40,000 signs are to be removed.

The initiative to put in order the city's outdoor advertising began last May, when the government sent a law project to the Congress and approved a resolution to stop new authorizations for billboards and signs.

According to Pagina 12 newspaper, the new law's main points are:
-It establishes three areas in the city: residential, commercial zone and the Republic Square. In the first area, some signs will be allowed, but only small ones to indicate a shop's activity; in the second area there will be drastic cuts to advertising; and the third will be the only one to allow big signs and electronic billboards, but there will be new regulations.
-The law also establishes new parameters for signs, such as lightning and allowed colors.
-It also forbids the total covering of facades, some kinds of billboards, and the installation of signs on apartments and houses.

It's worth taking a look at Tony de Marco's photostream on flickr capturing the removal of billboards in Sao Paulo and the remarkable temporary impact that had on the visual landscape.

Advertising is bad!