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French cities trying to ban public adverts

theguardian.com

121–130 of 140 posts

Re: French cities trying to ban public adverts

#121
post #58

In Lausanne, we have "le pub vous faites de-penser" stickers on many billboards. Translation: Advertising makes you de-think (a pun on "spend")

As a bilingual, found that one really nice. (minor nitpick: should be "la pub")

Also, if "La pub" then it should be "vous fait". Or alternatively, "Les pubs vous font".

Re: French cities trying to ban public adverts

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Newspapers, magazines etc. Basically however they want.

Those are just other forms of advertising, and the entire print industry is dying anyway. Where's the real answer?

An article or review about a product written by an independent journalist that wasn't bribed is not an advert. Whether it appears in a printed publication or an online equivalent is immaterial.

Re: French cities trying to ban public adverts

#123

There was an iPhone ad draped over the Louvre a few months ago. I was shocked that the parisians of all people would debase themselves for Tim cook like that.

Yeah, the government in Victoria (Australia) forced the Sydney Opera House to accept gambling ads (for horse racing) projected onto it a few months ago.

Despite large public outcry, etc.

Definitely some money changed hands to bribe the gov people involved to make it happen. Can't see any other excuse for it.

Re: French cities trying to ban public adverts

#124
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you. And I suspect 9 out of 10 doctors do as well. I want to neuter advertising more than anything, but I can't think of any kind of "rule" we could establish that would make public mind hacking illegal.

Maybe we're focused too much on the content of the advertising rather than methodology of advertisement. First and foremost advertising is paid speech, that is speech that would not otherwise be made if one party was not being compensated in some way or another. Obviously this definition has tons of edge cases, but it's a good starting point IMO. While all of those coca cola ads are "true", they would be limited in s…

What if we mandated that companies can only use their revenues for the company's purpose or given to the shareholders? I consider "ads" on company property part of the company's purpose here as they're necessary so the customer knows what company they're dealing with.

- Ads would be implicitly banned.

- Coca Cola couldn't bypass this rule by buying a taxi fleet because they aren't a taxi company.

- Newspapers could still operate even though journalists get paid for speech.

It could also help against other problems, depending on how narrow the purpose of a company has to be:

- ISPs have no incentive to violate net neutrality by privileging their own value added services (streaming etc) because their ISPs not streaming providers.

- If you subscribe to a folder that syncs you know that it will remain a folder that syncs. The behind it won't pivot to something you neither want not need, bloating the software till it bursts.

- Similarly: No incredible journeys anymore. Products don't get discontinued because they get in the way of $CORPORATION's plans.

- Chosing services because they aren't owned by Facebook actually works.

- Open protocols would be a thing again if we decouple clients and services. Edge case: Someone initially has to develop a client, a server and the protocol.

The idea is that by separating concerns, we enable customers to decide where their money goes and to freely chose between goods and services without getting artificially locked into any corporation's ecosystem.

Re: French cities trying to ban public adverts

#125
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish we had that on the tube in London. Instead, you ride an escalator and see upwards of 20-maybe 30 video ads on the way. And that's before a marketing firm commissions the redesign of a tunnel so an entire stretch of walkway is 100% ad, like a shitty Disney ride. Or you arrive to one of the big terminals and gigantic screens are blasting even more ads at you. This is, of course, after you spend 40+ minutes on a…

Tube adverts also tend to play on people’s insecurities only making it worse

As someone who is highly susceptible to yawn-contagion (I literally yawned writing that's and again writing this parenthetical) the snake oil ads showing the woman yawning are a nightmare for me, but I suspect I'm in a tiny minority

Re: French cities trying to ban public adverts

#126
post #5

It'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…

Bit of a hijack but are you still working? I’ve been in LA for 15 years and the plan is to move to SB once we no longer need to work. I love everything about the area (I just did a 5 personal retreat at Lake Cachuma) but job optionality is low.

I’ll be back on Saturday and can’t wait for the peace, calm and beauty.

Re: French cities trying to ban public adverts

#127
post #118

My wife did her PhD in out-of-home media (which very much included billboards). I have yet to find a more rabid opponent to out-of-home advertising (in general) and billboards (in particular), and she will explain why it is evil at the drop of the proverbial hat... As an amateur artist she will start with visual pollution and then veer into psychological damage... /grin

Curious: does she have an argument for why in-home advertising is good, or is it just that she has not studied it?

Re: French cities trying to ban public adverts

#128
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But also most of the billboards are ads for cultural events, theatre, city-organised events, museums etc. I quite like that actually, where else would I find about some shows or things to do.

> I quite like that actually, where else would I find about some shows or things to do. How about in a free magazine which advertises all such events? Or a website that does similar? Also listings of "What's On" in more general media.

All of that is also great too, but I find it’s less of a waste to print a dozen of billboards at strategic locations vs. printing hundreds of thousands of newspapers and spam peoples mailboxes.

In Lausanne specifically, those billboards are also works of art in their own right so I do enjoy them.

Re: French cities trying to ban public adverts

#129

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.

The giant jumbotrons by the airport and in Inglewood are insane.

You read my mind. Those are exactly the ones I was thinking of. They're expanding.

Re: French cities trying to ban public adverts

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The law could be written so that individuals could sue companies that advertise with opinions rather than facts. Kind of like ow ADA laws are set up in California. The bureaucracy would be the court system.

False advertising is already prosecuted. So specifically here we need to adjust the "reasonability" interpretation. If they say Coca-Cola is refreshing, and I found it's not, courts now say it is reasonable to assume that the statement is subjective. If the reasonability test is changed they will no longer be able to advertise opinions.

Can individuals sue for false advertising? If it was easy and inexpensive for regular people to file suit against big companies I think it would change they way they advertise.
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