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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 exa

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 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 later, it is more likely to see one of these nowadays than an empty outdoor frame https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=sao+paulo+full+building+graffiti https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=sao+paulo+full+buil...

vc9999 3y ago
Finally someone who is not spitting things they have no clue about
airstrike 3y ago
Many of those full building graffiti are the beautiful work of renowned street artist Eduardo Kobra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Kobra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Kobra
- tchaffee 3y ago
  I love SP street art but I think most of Kobra's stuff is terrible. I did see one recently that I liked. Is it art? Yeah. Is it fine art? Yeah probably. Just not my cup of tea.
  - whats_a_quasar 3y ago
    Can you say more about what you don't like about Kobra's art vs. other street art? I'm curious, not familiar with the genre!
    - tchaffee 3y ago
      One of his signature motifs is to put a checkerboard in everything. Do an image search for "kobra checkerboard" and you'll see. I find it a bit cliché and it doesn't appeal to my asthetics.
tr4vis 3y ago
The full building murals today are some of the most sought after attractions of SP, they look absolutely stunning https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/30/world/americas/brazil-sao-paulo-murals.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/30/world/americas/brazil-sao...
kibwen 3y ago
> 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.
- Luctct 3y ago
  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.
  - lucideer 3y ago
    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.
  - crazygringo 3y ago
    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. :)
    - lucideer 3y ago
      Those examples have some similarities, but - while they had their contemporary detractors - they were, for the most part, formally educated participants in the art establishment of their times. I'd liken it more to the works of Henri Rousseau or even maybe the French Decadent movement.
dkga 3y ago
Full-building graphite are one of the hallmarks of downtown Belo Horizonte. I remember as a kid seeing some of those impressive, surrealistic images. They made a big impression on me, I wish I knew who the artist(s) was/were.
- blowski 3y ago
  I particularly loved the art around Praça de Peixe and Carlos Prates. The stuff around Savassi was bigger and more impressive, but somehow more professional and generic.
- rmsaksida 3y ago
  Same! You are probably thinking about the murals by Hugues Desmaziéres (and Douglas Melo) [1][2]. Seeing those murals in the 90s really excited my imagination as a kid. [1] https://repositorio.ufmg.br/handle/1843/35311 https://repositorio.ufmg.br/handle/1843/35311 [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQTui7ZdbJQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQTui7ZdbJQ
- xinayder 3y ago
  Downtown BH and around Savassi iirc have very good murals. I like seeing them instead of the pixo tags we see at the top of the buildings. Honestly, I wouldn't mind pixo that much if it was colorful, like someone posted a picture from the Paris metro. It's still illegal, but at least it's not just a dick swinging contest seeing who's going higher, it looks nicer.
  - rbanffy 3y ago
    > Honestly, I wouldn't mind pixo that much if it was colorful, like someone posted a picture from the Paris metro. Indeed. Most of the markings are low-effort territory marking. At least they aren't peeing on walls. Maybe if we added arts to the basic school curriculum some aesthetic sensitivity could be imparted in them so they'd feel pressed to better consider what they are going to paint.
gooseyman 3y ago
Those full building works are awesome. I question whether the lack of billboards is truly related to the rise of these murals. They are on MASSIVE canvases that surely were not previously covered in totality by an ad. If this rise in these works is a response/reaction to the lack of color, then the quote in the article that “Advertising is both an art form and, when you're in your car or alone on foot, a form of entertainment that helps relieve solitude and boredom” has some validity. I would much prefer a ban on ads, but I question that correlation on these two. We have murals and billboards in our town. The mutual started showing up in force with the rise of instagram.
- rescbr 3y ago
  Ah, many of those builing façades that are now murals were in fact painted ads some 70 years ago. https://g1.globo.com/sp/sao-paulo/noticia/2018/09/15/anuncio-historico-descoberto-apos-desabamento-de-predio-em-sp-e-pintado-e-divide-opinioes.ghtml https://g1.globo.com/sp/sao-paulo/noticia/2018/09/15/anuncio...
msla 3y ago
> Since this law was adopted, there's been an increase in full building graffiti And good art makes people come inside. Not advertisement indeed.
- GuB-42 3y ago
  And what about advertisement that is good art? Some ads are artistically very good and only the context causes us to react negatively, we don't appreciate it fully because we know it is here to influence us. It is the same idea with graffiti. Some of it is really good, but we won't appreciate it if we tie it to vandalism and criminality.
Aerroon 3y ago
Most of those murals look much worse than advertisements to me. I guess there's less incentive to maintain them.
- fesoliveira 3y ago
  Well, good thing art is subjective. To me these are leagues better than ads and they bring social commentary and inspiration far more than any ad. It's one of the few things I am proud of as someone who lived in the state of Sao Paulo for a good chunk of my life.
  - Luctct 3y ago
    No, they don't bring any social commentary, they only bring sycophancy. As soon as you criticize it you are moderated and silenced into oblivion. Your "social commentary" can only go in the way they demand that it go.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - lostlogin 3y ago
      Can you give an example of good art and of valid artistic social commentary? You have said what you think isn’t valid or good and seeing something you value would be interesting.
  - mcpackieh 3y ago
    > they bring social commentary In other words, they're propaganda. At least in the case of graffiti with social commentary, anybody can go out there and put their message up. Murals with social messages are propaganda sanctioned by the property owner, or even commissioned by the government, making it establishmentarian propaganda that pretends to be transgressive by adopting the superficial form of unsanctioned graffiti. Such murals are tacky and inauthentic; scrawled gang signs have more soul.
    - 3y ago
bmacho 3y ago
Can't we replace ad banners on websites with free space to collectively draw on Q.Q .. we probably can't, it is too easy to automate it, and too hard to prevent that. But would be fun.
- Perz1val 3y ago
  That would create a new job market - drawing ads
- tzs 3y ago
  A long time ago back when browsers supported Java applets you could include applets in your banner ads. I worked at a place that had a product that included a chat service. The chat client was in Java and would have been quick and easy to convert into an applet. I tried to convince the person in charge of our advertising that we should include such a chat applet in one of our banner ads, which would put everyone currently viewing the banner into an anonymous chatroom. Unfortunately he wouldn't go for it.
- soupfordummies 3y ago
  Oh man... there was some extension or app or something way back when that turned every web page into its own dedicated chatroom/forum. Does anyone remember this? It has to have been 20 years ago at this point (yikes!)
__MatrixMan__ 3y ago
I'm reminded of Valparaiso, Chile. Beautiful place. https://www.google.com/search?q=valparaiso+chile+street+art&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q=valparaiso+chile+street+art&...
andybp85 3y ago
that's one thing I love about living in Jersey City, NJ. there's a thriving street art program: https://www.jcmap.org/ https://www.jcmap.org/
mmathew 3y ago
Agree, having visited São Paulo a few weeks back, downtown seems awash in graffiti to replace the advertising ban. Perhaps the law of unintended consequences…..
kafkaesque 3y ago
I'm interested to know what city is at the other end of the spectrum. From my own travels, one city I would submit as a candidate would be Bangkok. In fact, I control-F'd Bangkok and no one has mentioned it yet. As soon as you leave Savarnabhumi Airport, you are bombarded with maybe 15 to 20 billboards within just a few metres from each other, back to back. It was truly a wild thing to experience at first. All the billboards had the same ad, too. Truly a thing to behold.
dakial1 3y ago
Some stores also have just ignored the law and brough back gigantic signs (which I assume they get away with by bribing officials)
INTPenis 3y ago
It's kinda interesting that you, a user, had to bring this to our attention. The article linked by OP only focused on the empty spaces left behind by billboards. Of course art can take the place of billboards, but clearly that's not what this article aims to convey.
- ziftface 3y ago
  That's not the impression I got. Those empty billboards are, from my perspective, preferable to advertisements. The fact that some people took advantage of the space to draw art is a nice bonus, but even without that it's a positive change.

vc9999 3y ago

Finally someone who is not spitting things they have no clue about

airstrike 3y ago

Many of those full building graffiti are the beautiful work of renowned street artist Eduardo Kobra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Kobra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Kobra

tchaffee 3y ago
I love SP street art but I think most of Kobra's stuff is terrible. I did see one recently that I liked. Is it art? Yeah. Is it fine art? Yeah probably. Just not my cup of tea.
- whats_a_quasar 3y ago
  Can you say more about what you don't like about Kobra's art vs. other street art? I'm curious, not familiar with the genre!
  - tchaffee 3y ago
    One of his signature motifs is to put a checkerboard in everything. Do an image search for "kobra checkerboard" and you'll see. I find it a bit cliché and it doesn't appeal to my asthetics.

tr4vis 3y ago

The full building murals today are some of the most sought after attractions of SP, they look absolutely stunning https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/30/world/americas/brazil-sao-paulo-murals.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/30/world/americas/brazil-sao...

kibwen 3y ago

> 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.

Luctct 3y ago
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.
- lucideer 3y ago
  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.
- crazygringo 3y ago
  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. :)
  - lucideer 3y ago
    Those examples have some similarities, but - while they had their contemporary detractors - they were, for the most part, formally educated participants in the art establishment of their times. I'd liken it more to the works of Henri Rousseau or even maybe the French Decadent movement.

dkga 3y ago

Full-building graphite are one of the hallmarks of downtown Belo Horizonte. I remember as a kid seeing some of those impressive, surrealistic images. They made a big impression on me, I wish I knew who the artist(s) was/were.

blowski 3y ago
I particularly loved the art around Praça de Peixe and Carlos Prates. The stuff around Savassi was bigger and more impressive, but somehow more professional and generic.
rmsaksida 3y ago
Same! You are probably thinking about the murals by Hugues Desmaziéres (and Douglas Melo) [1][2]. Seeing those murals in the 90s really excited my imagination as a kid. [1] https://repositorio.ufmg.br/handle/1843/35311 https://repositorio.ufmg.br/handle/1843/35311 [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQTui7ZdbJQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQTui7ZdbJQ
xinayder 3y ago
Downtown BH and around Savassi iirc have very good murals. I like seeing them instead of the pixo tags we see at the top of the buildings. Honestly, I wouldn't mind pixo that much if it was colorful, like someone posted a picture from the Paris metro. It's still illegal, but at least it's not just a dick swinging contest seeing who's going higher, it looks nicer.
- rbanffy 3y ago
  > Honestly, I wouldn't mind pixo that much if it was colorful, like someone posted a picture from the Paris metro. Indeed. Most of the markings are low-effort territory marking. At least they aren't peeing on walls. Maybe if we added arts to the basic school curriculum some aesthetic sensitivity could be imparted in them so they'd feel pressed to better consider what they are going to paint.

gooseyman 3y ago

Those full building works are awesome. I question whether the lack of billboards is truly related to the rise of these murals. They are on MASSIVE canvases that surely were not previously covered in totality by an ad. If this rise in these works is a response/reaction to the lack of color, then the quote in the article that “Advertising is both an art form and, when you're in your car or alone on foot, a form of entertainment that helps relieve solitude and boredom” has some validity. I would much prefer a ban on ads, but I question that correlation on these two. We have murals and billboards in our town. The mutual started showing up in force with the rise of instagram.

rescbr 3y ago
Ah, many of those builing façades that are now murals were in fact painted ads some 70 years ago. https://g1.globo.com/sp/sao-paulo/noticia/2018/09/15/anuncio-historico-descoberto-apos-desabamento-de-predio-em-sp-e-pintado-e-divide-opinioes.ghtml https://g1.globo.com/sp/sao-paulo/noticia/2018/09/15/anuncio...

msla 3y ago

> Since this law was adopted, there's been an increase in full building graffiti And good art makes people come inside. Not advertisement indeed.

GuB-42 3y ago
And what about advertisement that is good art? Some ads are artistically very good and only the context causes us to react negatively, we don't appreciate it fully because we know it is here to influence us. It is the same idea with graffiti. Some of it is really good, but we won't appreciate it if we tie it to vandalism and criminality.

Aerroon 3y ago

Most of those murals look much worse than advertisements to me. I guess there's less incentive to maintain them.

fesoliveira 3y ago
Well, good thing art is subjective. To me these are leagues better than ads and they bring social commentary and inspiration far more than any ad. It's one of the few things I am proud of as someone who lived in the state of Sao Paulo for a good chunk of my life.
- Luctct 3y ago
  No, they don't bring any social commentary, they only bring sycophancy. As soon as you criticize it you are moderated and silenced into oblivion. Your "social commentary" can only go in the way they demand that it go.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - lostlogin 3y ago
    Can you give an example of good art and of valid artistic social commentary? You have said what you think isn’t valid or good and seeing something you value would be interesting.
- mcpackieh 3y ago
  > they bring social commentary In other words, they're propaganda. At least in the case of graffiti with social commentary, anybody can go out there and put their message up. Murals with social messages are propaganda sanctioned by the property owner, or even commissioned by the government, making it establishmentarian propaganda that pretends to be transgressive by adopting the superficial form of unsanctioned graffiti. Such murals are tacky and inauthentic; scrawled gang signs have more soul.
  - 3y ago

bmacho 3y ago

Can't we replace ad banners on websites with free space to collectively draw on Q.Q .. we probably can't, it is too easy to automate it, and too hard to prevent that. But would be fun.

Perz1val 3y ago
That would create a new job market - drawing ads
tzs 3y ago
A long time ago back when browsers supported Java applets you could include applets in your banner ads. I worked at a place that had a product that included a chat service. The chat client was in Java and would have been quick and easy to convert into an applet. I tried to convince the person in charge of our advertising that we should include such a chat applet in one of our banner ads, which would put everyone currently viewing the banner into an anonymous chatroom. Unfortunately he wouldn't go for it.
soupfordummies 3y ago
Oh man... there was some extension or app or something way back when that turned every web page into its own dedicated chatroom/forum. Does anyone remember this? It has to have been 20 years ago at this point (yikes!)

__MatrixMan__ 3y ago

I'm reminded of Valparaiso, Chile. Beautiful place. https://www.google.com/search?q=valparaiso+chile+street+art&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q=valparaiso+chile+street+art&...

andybp85 3y ago

that's one thing I love about living in Jersey City, NJ. there's a thriving street art program: https://www.jcmap.org/ https://www.jcmap.org/

mmathew 3y ago

Agree, having visited São Paulo a few weeks back, downtown seems awash in graffiti to replace the advertising ban. Perhaps the law of unintended consequences…..

kafkaesque 3y ago

I'm interested to know what city is at the other end of the spectrum. From my own travels, one city I would submit as a candidate would be Bangkok. In fact, I control-F'd Bangkok and no one has mentioned it yet. As soon as you leave Savarnabhumi Airport, you are bombarded with maybe 15 to 20 billboards within just a few metres from each other, back to back. It was truly a wild thing to experience at first. All the billboards had the same ad, too. Truly a thing to behold.

dakial1 3y ago

Some stores also have just ignored the law and brough back gigantic signs (which I assume they get away with by bribing officials)

INTPenis 3y ago

It's kinda interesting that you, a user, had to bring this to our attention. The article linked by OP only focused on the empty spaces left behind by billboards. Of course art can take the place of billboards, but clearly that's not what this article aims to convey.

ziftface 3y ago
That's not the impression I got. Those empty billboards are, from my perspective, preferable to advertisements. The fact that some people took advantage of the space to draw art is a nice bonus, but even without that it's a positive change.