SÃO PAULO: one year without ads. What the city is doing about it?

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The law regulating advertising inthe public spaces of São Paulo celebrates its first anniversary amidst continued controversy

As well as suffering from air and noise pollution, São Paulo also has a problem with visual pollution. Taking a stroll through the city means walking through aesthetic chaos (which can sometimes be quite an experience). The city’s architecture is an eclectic mess: power cables hang down off electricity pylons and, until the Clean City Law came into effect, shop signs and advertisements didn’t follow any kind of criteria whatsoever. But over the last eleven months, the situation has improved after traders throughout the city rushed to comply with a new legislation imposed by law. Only petrol station signs were left intact. At the beginning of December however, the authorities suspended a temporary injunction allowing petrol stations to advertise without restrictions.

This was the last legal impediment standing in the way of the mayor, Gilberto Kassab; since the Law was passed, on January 1st 2007, the local authorities have faced 97 court injunctions and 114 lawsuits against the Clean City Law, but bit by bit, the injunctions granted by the authorities have been suspended.

The popularity of the Clean City Law, which was drawn up in January 2006 and passed the following September, is due to its radical goal of improving the look of São Paulo’s urban landscape. The idea was to ruthlessly cut down on the number of billboards, posters and signs erected in the city, at any cost.

According to the new legislation, advertising is strictly prohibited in parks and squares, on lampposts, towers, viaducts, tunnels, on stretches of road with traffic signs, on buildings without windows and on rooftops.

SÃO PAULO: one year without ads. What the city is doing about it?

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