This topic is already dead, but you asked a direct question so I'll bite. Many of the old buildings in downtown Sao Paulo used to have ads on their sides. Rent

This topic is already dead, but you asked a direct question so I'll bite. Many of the old buildings in downtown Sao Paulo used to have ads on their sides. Renting space for ads provided extra income for these buildings that was sometimes used for renovations. People who live in these buildings are usually not that well off to begin with (some of these buildings are known as "vertical slums"), and there's little incentive to repaint when people know that graffiti will be back before the new paint has even finished drying. I live in downtown Sao Paulo and have seen it happen several times. By the way, fines for business owners who put out signs outside the law's strict specifications are way, way heftier than fines for graffiti, which usually goes unpunished anyway. TLDR: yes, I really see advertising as the lesser evil in this case.