Sao Paulo: The City That Said NO to Advertising
I recently watched the film The Greatest Movie Ever Sold starring Morgan Spurlock. Many of you may recognize him from his film Super Size Me. Instead of the fast food industry, in this film he takes aim at corporate advertising within motion pictures and television, more commonly known as product placement. The film is very interesting and informative as it follows Morgan on his journey to find advertisers to star in and pay for the film. It shows in great detail the process that the motion picture industry and advertisers go through to insert their products into movies. If you haven't already seen the film I strongly recommend that you check it out.
One aspect of the film that jumped out at me was the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil and how they have recently made the decision to ban all outdoor advertising. The name of Sao Paulo's law was "Lei Cidade Limpa" or the Clean City Law. The mayor of Sao Paulo, Gilberto Kassab, explains the law in the film by saying, "The Clean City Law came from a necessity to combat pollution …
pollution of water, sound, air, and the visual. We decided that we
should start combating pollution with the most conspicuous sector –
visual pollution".
Here is a link to an article discussing Sao Paulo's Clean City Law in more detail: http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/73/Sao_Paulo_A_City_Without_Ads.html
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| Sao Paulo after the removal of all outdoor ads |
Although I found it very interesting that Sao Paulo made the choice to ban all outdoor ads, what made the biggest impression on me was how much it changed the city and how completely opposite it now is from say Times Square in New York or Piccadilly Circus in London. While watching The Persuaders in class we saw a number of different shots and images depicting the advertising driven Times Square in NYC. The advertisements in a lot of major U.S. cities have become a part of the culture and we expect to see numerous different ads. Try and imagine for just one second what Times Square might be like without any outdoor advertising! How would stores draw in customers? Would marketers find another way to bombard us with ads?
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| Times Square, New York |
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| Piccadilly Circus, London |
It seems to me that advertising is, in large part, based on creative expression. Some of the most beautiful, attractive, entertaining sights you see in a large city come from the advertising. I suppose it just doesn't make sense to me that Sao Paulo is trying to prohibit visual pollution in the middle of an urban sprawl. Its like trying to limit the number of books in a library or the number of holes on a golf course. People travel from all over the world to see Times Square, in large part, because of the excessive advertising. Its beautiful, appealing, and exciting.
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