Good on them. In Los Angeles, the tonier the neighborhood the fewer the billboards. The savagery of monster electronic signage and visual barrage increases substantially as one goes into the less affluent locations.
French cities trying to ban public adverts
31–40 of 140 posts
Re: French cities trying to ban public adverts
#32Quite simply, advertising is visual pollution; whether it be on large billboards, on bus stops or freestanding in the middle of the sidewalk.
It's visual pollution and it has ruined our towns and cities. I'm excited to read this article and see that people are taking a stand.
Re: French cities trying to ban public adverts
#33Banning ads would be nice, but that's already old thinking. The growth of the influencer model, advertorials/newsvertising, and individual personality as brand experience means that even if all public ads were banned, brands would just be paying thousands of micro-influencers for IRL mentions, tracked silently through the mic on your phone. When you take the influencer thing to it's logical conclusion (everyone is a…
> (everyone is a brand ambassador)
So word of mouth? The already known highest quality way to gain new customers: friends of existing customers.
All you gotta do is have a product good enough to be recommended. And maybe a nice built-in viral loop or twenty.
Re: French cities trying to ban public adverts
#34Banning ads would be nice, but that's already old thinking. The growth of the influencer model, advertorials/newsvertising, and individual personality as brand experience means that even if all public ads were banned, brands would just be paying thousands of micro-influencers for IRL mentions, tracked silently through the mic on your phone. When you take the influencer thing to it's logical conclusion (everyone is a…
People can choose to avoid "influencers" quite easily. That 10m LED billboard down the street blasting sound, not so much.
Re: French cities trying to ban public adverts
#35LOL, SV is literally built on toxic advertising at this point. What would happen to things like HN if people and regulatory bodies got serious about the shit-show that is internet advertising?
Re: French cities trying to ban public adverts
#36Good on them. In Los Angeles, the tonier the neighborhood the fewer the billboards. The savagery of monster electronic signage and visual barrage increases substantially as one goes into the less affluent locations.
Well, of course. Mental pollution is just another thing poor people are subjected to, while the executives of those same advertising companies live in suburbs without a single billboard in sight.
Re: French cities trying to ban public adverts
#37OK, I'll make the case for ads:
Ads are disruptive. They allow new businesses to break into markets owned by old dominant suppliers. This way they keep the market healthy and serving consumers.
Based on that, you'd expect anti-ad initiatives to be aligned with powerful established industries. Not that I know how to confirm or refute that.
Re: French cities trying to ban public adverts
#38OK, I'll make the case for ads: Ads are disruptive. They allow new businesses to break into markets owned by old dominant suppliers. This way they keep the market healthy and serving consumers. Based on that, you'd expect anti-ad initiatives to be aligned with powerful established industries. Not that I know how to confirm or refute that.
Ads allow whomever has the deepest pockets to dominate the public's attention. Incumbents will have more money to spend, chilling the influence of new competitors. Most of the "disruptor" success stories that come to mind started with some variation of "we didn't spend anything on advertising, relying on word of mouth."
Re: French cities trying to ban public adverts
#39It's kind of an open secret that the city of Santa Barbara (CA, US) has banned several forms of public outdoor advertising: we have no billboards, no promotional posters, no taxi toppers... It's delightful, and very high on my list of reasons why I enjoy living here. Every time I leave I'm reminded how noisy space is when it's filled with advertisements. I wholeheartedly recommend others advocate for similar policies…
Lots of places in America have severe restrictions on advertising. Hilton Head, South Carolina; and along the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey leap to mind. I think along some of the toll roads in Houston this is also true (It's been a while, I might be remembering that wrong). Billboards are banned in downtown Chicago, so big companies rent storefronts in tourist areas and put in stores that are not supposed to ma…
I live in downtown Chicago and I find the lack of billboards everywhere refreshing. Michigan Avenue has very few advertisements with the exception of unintrusive storefront signs.
Re: French cities trying to ban public adverts
#40>'Advertising breaks your spirit'
Anyone who has taken the NYC Subway understands this sentiment. The only way to avoid them is to completely close your eyes and wish you were somewhere else.