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Sao Paulo: A city with no outdoor advertisements (2013)

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Re: Sao Paulo: A city with no outdoor advertisements (2013)

#21

Post by endisneigh »

diego_moita wrote: post #17
23B1 wrote: post #3

I agree that in many cities, advertising is a blight. São Paulo is not one of those cities, and has much bigger problems than outdoor advertising.

Agree, São Paulo is as bad as most 3rd world big cities. But one less problem is one less problem, even if it isn't a big one. You get better when you eliminate problems.

Advertising is not definitely a problem to begin with, though. Advertising helps with a robust commercial industry and generates revenue for municipalities. Can it be done wrong? Of course. Nuance is lost on folks I suppose.

Re: Sao Paulo: A city with no outdoor advertisements (2013)

#23

Post by rbanffy »

endisneigh wrote: post #19
rbanffy wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived there. The adverts were making the city ugly. It was a massive improvement when we got rid of them.

Luckily there is something in between "ugly advertisements" and "no advertisements at all"

None at all is still better. When you allow some, you’ll have people gaming the rules and finding loopholes. A clear ban is easier to enforce.

As for making the city ugly, I grew up there and I’m the first to say it’s an acquired taste. You get used to the grit, to the harshness and the layers of architectural history. Visiting the city centre is always some sort of a discovery.

Re: Sao Paulo: A city with no outdoor advertisements (2013)

#25

Post by gota »

g3ol4d0 wrote: post #15
gota wrote: post #9

> Seven years on, the world's fourth-largest metropolis and South America’s most important city remains free of visual clutter and eye sore that plagues the majority of cities around the world. Unfortunately it suffers greatly - to a ridiculous level, in some places - from that ugliest kind of grafitti, convoluted "tags" made in single-stroke black ink I'm not sure if that is the case everywhere but in Brazil people…

pixo é arte

I'm not arguing for or against that - I'm just stating a fact (there's a lot of pichação in São Paulo) and an opinion (I find it extremely ugly, even if I do like grafitti, including the more artistic and colorful tags)

Re: Sao Paulo: A city with no outdoor advertisements (2013)

#26

Post by endisneigh »

rbanffy wrote: post #23
endisneigh wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Luckily there is something in between "ugly advertisements" and "no advertisements at all"

None at all is still better. When you allow some, you’ll have people gaming the rules and finding loopholes. A clear ban is easier to enforce. As for making the city ugly, I grew up there and I’m the first to say it’s an acquired taste. You get used to the grit, to the harshness and the layers of architectural history. Visiting the city centre is always some sort of a discovery.

None is not necessarily or inherently better because advertising generates revenue. You would need to weigh the revenue vs. the nebulous value of "no advertising". Given that there exists stores in Sao Paulo, you still see "advertisements", just not on billboards.

You speak of the grit - said grit could be improved with government efforts funded by... advertisements in part.

I suppose this lack of nuanced thinking is why the war on drugs is still a thing. There are many bad things that you can try to unliterally ban. There are tradeoffs.

Re: Sao Paulo: A city with no outdoor advertisements (2013)

#27

Post by NoboruWataya »

andsoitis wrote: post #4

Love the idea, but the execution can be better. The photos show empty billboard frames, remnants of old ads against walls, etc., making things look dilapidated but not in an Anthens-ancient-ruin kind of way.

Would be cool if these spaces (or some of them) were given to local artists to use.

Re: Sao Paulo: A city with no outdoor advertisements (2013)

#28

Post by meerita »

luizlobo wrote: post #14

Interesting from someone that leaves in SP for 2 years and just spend about 40 days in Berlin and 21 in NY last year, this doesn’t seem to resonate as such a big difference. Berlin almost doesn’t have any billboards and NY I didn’t saw it bothered me, at least in Brooklyn. Curious on how SP was in the past. Unfortunately the city has way worst problems then billboards.

I've been in São Paulo for a week, and the city feels depressing. The architecture is horrible, boring, and not well-maintained, especially when compared to the architecture of old European cities where at least the buildings are aesthetically pleasing. The excessive advertising only worsens the situation. I've also visited Berlin, and unfortunately, it too felt quite dull.

Re: Sao Paulo: A city with no outdoor advertisements (2013)

#29

Post by marliechiller »

sparrish wrote: post #12

Makes it look abandoned to me. Probably because my mind is used to seeing advertising everywhere that people are or transit so when I see no ads, I think no people. I'm not sure ugly gray concrete is better than a big colorful billboard though. I'd like to see it in-person.

Perhaps its revealing of the true nature of way cities really are - huge concrete, brick and mortar landscapes. Maybe the revulsion is a natural reaction and humans are inclined towards a more earthly aesthetic which advertising simulates through color
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