zlacker

To go halfway to the extreme of this article, I think banning large-scale billboards in my city would make a big difference.

It feels like having a calmer public space is more in the public interest than reminding them to drink Miller Lite.

>>iambat+(OP)
Vermont bans billboards and it is amazing.

>>iambat+(OP)
Redmond, WA has a ban on billboards. Locals can see this demonstrated by driving 124th St. and crossing Willows Rd into Kirkland. First thing you’ll see are billboards.

Just got back from a trip to Florida. Billboards along every freeway, and 75% of them are personal injury lawyers. If you’re a resident of Redmond, it is an obnoxious contrast.

>>iambat+(OP)
Some cities have exterior walls of buildings covered in ads. Other cities have them covered in murals. The latter are much more pleasant to be in.

>>iambat+(OP)
My hometown did this, and I was surprised how bad billboards can be when I moved away

>>adgjls+n2
São Paulo implemented "Cidade Limpa" which banned posted ads. It was said to renew the city.

>>iambat+(OP)
I love this article because I think this is the conversation we should be having. Lots of advertising is harmful, some of it is useful on balance, and some of it is too hard to ban without infringing on other desirable speech. But I do think we should be critically thinking about all advertising and outlawing certain flavors of it.

Billboards let landlords skim extra money by making the public space significantly more hostile to everyone else. Fuck em.

>>iambat+(OP)
There’s a ban here in BC except on indigenous land. Which is scattered throughout where I live. So you have these primitive, ugly things sticking out in clusters wherever people are allowed to put them. I wish people didn’t need the money to allow those on their land.