Live data from Hacker News

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

amusingplanet.com

81–90 of 428 posts

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

#81
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> So it's not like they really are giving up much with not having advertisements. Maybe the fact that they don't allow billboards is related to the fact that they are less consumerist? Seems like ads would stimulate the economy, and that is not what they want. I'm curious how they rank for happiness.

Subjectively and anecdotally, Vermonters I know are very proud of their no-billboard rule.

I wouldn't expect VT to have a high happiness ranking however, given the (also anecdotal) drug problem in some places, and threat of a less-snowy winter climate damaging the ski and winter tourism industry.

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

#82

In the US, the state of Maine does not allow billboards. It's a thing I didn't notice until living elsewhere, and it's really nice.

The state of Hawai'i also bans billboards and severely limits other outside signs and advertising.

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

#83
post #57
post #37

Some additions: Stores also cannot use their full façade for advertising. Branding colors and details are OK, but logos cannot be too large (don't know the exact rule). The law is picky. Some stores cheat by having a glass façade, and using LEDs inside that glass. Like this: https://imgur.com/a/CLdUD1C Since this law was adopted, there's been an increase in full building graffiti, which is not banned. Now 10 years la…

> Since this law was adopted, there's been an increase in full building graffiti, which is not banned. Now 10 years later, it is more likely to see one of these nowadays than an empty outdoor frame Nearly all of these look like murals, not graffiti (these are distinct forms of street art). Regardless, those photos are beautiful and I'd love to have those instead of billboards in my city.

Neither murals nor graffiti is art. None of those would have been accepted in any gallery some 30~40 years ago when standards were higher and the world didn't suffer from the high number of grown-up men who are hooked up on comic books and animated cartoons it suffers through today. A lot of it is just vandalism. None of it seems to be made by or for adults. 99% looks like it's made by some comic book fan on LSD. Always the same. Always the same. Always the same. Always the same. Always the same. That's just how shallow they are. I've heard stories of places being pressured or even threatened to cede their spaces to accommodate this form of "art." It's awful all around. Real art is deep, meaningful, timeless and doesn't need to be imposed.

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

#84

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.

Meanwhile, I find NYS's inundation of billboards downright depressing. It's just ugly, even in places that ought to be beautiful upstate. When I cross the border into Vermont, which bans ads on roads except for simple business signage, the difference is tangible.

NY City is an interesting case where the billboards almost don't even matter because it's already an unnatural high-stimulus environment. As for the rest of the state, I agree.

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

#85
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…

I’d take ugly street art over ugly advertisement. At least it’s not trying to manipulate you.

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

#86
post #57
post #37

Some additions: Stores also cannot use their full façade for advertising. Branding colors and details are OK, but logos cannot be too large (don't know the exact rule). The law is picky. Some stores cheat by having a glass façade, and using LEDs inside that glass. Like this: https://imgur.com/a/CLdUD1C Since this law was adopted, there's been an increase in full building graffiti, which is not banned. Now 10 years la…

> Since this law was adopted, there's been an increase in full building graffiti, which is not banned. Now 10 years later, it is more likely to see one of these nowadays than an empty outdoor frame Nearly all of these look like murals, not graffiti (these are distinct forms of street art). Regardless, those photos are beautiful and I'd love to have those instead of billboards in my city.

> these are distinct forms of street art

Can you elaborate on this? I've always thought a mural was just a type of graffiti?

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

#87
post #83
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Since this law was adopted, there's been an increase in full building graffiti, which is not banned. Now 10 years later, it is more likely to see one of these nowadays than an empty outdoor frame Nearly all of these look like murals, not graffiti (these are distinct forms of street art). Regardless, those photos are beautiful and I'd love to have those instead of billboards in my city.

Neither murals nor graffiti is art. None of those would have been accepted in any gallery some 30~40 years ago when standards were higher and the world didn't suffer from the high number of grown-up men who are hooked up on comic books and animated cartoons it suffers through today. A lot of it is just vandalism. None of it seems to be made by or for adults. 99% looks like it's made by some comic book fan on LSD. Alw…

I'm not sure if this kind of parody is against HN guidelines per se, but it's less common here than, say, Twitter, and as such is usually customary to add some indicator like "/s" or similar.

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

#88
post #83
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Since this law was adopted, there's been an increase in full building graffiti, which is not banned. Now 10 years later, it is more likely to see one of these nowadays than an empty outdoor frame Nearly all of these look like murals, not graffiti (these are distinct forms of street art). Regardless, those photos are beautiful and I'd love to have those instead of billboards in my city.

Neither murals nor graffiti is art. None of those would have been accepted in any gallery some 30~40 years ago when standards were higher and the world didn't suffer from the high number of grown-up men who are hooked up on comic books and animated cartoons it suffers through today. A lot of it is just vandalism. None of it seems to be made by or for adults. 99% looks like it's made by some comic book fan on LSD. Alw…

Just so you know, the exact same thing was said about pretty much every major art movement over the past century and beyond. When you say, "None of it seems to be made by or for adults", the same was basically said of Salvador Dalí and Andy Warhol and Paul Gauguin and Henri Matisse.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. :)

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

#89

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 think it's all a question of finding the right measure: in Germany there are strict rules for advertisement (for example you won't see giant billboards like in the US anywhere, flashing/animated ads are also strictly limited etc.), but a complete ban like in Sao Paulo might be overshooting the target. I grew up in socialist Romania, and the Sao Paulo photos from the article remind me of how a typical Romanian city used to look back then - still an eyesore, but a very drab one...
Post reply on HN