7 ms·
The city of Cracow in Poland banned billboards (and other visual advertising quite aggressively) about 2 years ago. Great outcomes. There are still some workaro
by miklosz 2y ago
The city of Cracow in Poland banned billboards (and other visual advertising quite aggressively) about 2 years ago. Great outcomes. There are still some workarounds that companies do to put this s..t out in the public (e.g. covers of renovation works can contain up to 50% of advertising area, so we have renovations of just finished buildings only to put the covers with ads).
Now, when I visit another city when there's no such ban I cannot stand this visual garbage.
This should be banned everywhere.
- lifestyleguru 2y agoHopefully you like looking at the face of Lewandowski because it's all over the place.
- ptsneves 2y agoA true classic. It looked extra cheesy when he advertised for Huawei. The man is a sellout and it has a kind of charm, because he knows his place: He is a just football player on the verge of retirement and he wants to squeeze the juice for the last drop.
- lifestyleguru 2y agoI remember his silhouette of size of entire building printed on scaffolding covering entire facade of a multi-storey building and advertising Huawei. Now Iga Świątek is slowly taking over, recently she popped out in payment terminal when I was trying to touch in the debit card. Get the fuck off, greedy girl. Please don't force me to watch you bloody face.
- badpun 2y agoIf it's not her, it will be somebody else. The system is the problem, not specific people.
- 1992spacemovie 2y agoLol that’s the last name of one of my Polish coworkers. Super common name I imagine.
- cromulent 2y agoOn my visits to Warsaw, I have always been struck by the translucent advertising entirely covering the sides of new-ish office buildings. Now I know how/why this is possible. Example (hard to find because no-one takes photos of the ugly buildings in Warsaw): https://www.businessinsider.in/thumb/msid-70660934,width-640,resizemode-4,imgsize-1386367/This-billboard-in-Warsaw-Poland-which-measured-26000-square-feet-drew-criticism-from-locals-when-it-was-put-up-in-2000-because-it-turned-an-office-building-into-ad-space-.jpg https://www.businessinsider.in/thumb/msid-70660934,width-640...
- lifestyleguru 2y agoIt's corruption. On paper it's probably construction or renovation and there is some fraudulent deal between inspection department in city hall and marketing agency. Fuck you, Coca Cola.
- actionfromafar 2y agoWow, that photo is taken on film, I bet.
- lrem 2y agoThat photo looks like the 90s though...
- einpoklum 2y agoI've had the same experience in Bucharest.
- Beijinger 2y agoThe Paris of the East? Strange.
- arresin 2y agoWarsaw is the most visually depressing place I have ever been to.
- acjohnson55 2y ago
- illiac786 2y agoThere put scaffold up just to hang advertising?!? That is so incredibly expensive, how can it be worth it? I had recently some shutters installed at my home (second floor) and the most expensive part was the scaffold…
- cyberpunk 2y agoThe marketing budget for a billboard / poster campaign is in the millions; they have to spend it somewhere or they’ll get less next year.
- OtherShrezzing 2y agoMoreover, if it's the _only_ advertising opportunity in the space, it's nominally higher value than it would be in a city with a large billboard presence.
- justinclift 2y agoCan't scaffolding be reused though? If it lasts for years, and can be reused, then there's probably standard amortisation approaches for it.
- illiac786 2y agoOh yeah, I meant the renting of scaffolding is super expensive.
- self_awareness 2y agoAnd now only rich corporations have the money to show off their big signs. Lots of smaller companies had to hide theirs, but ones like IKEA or MAKRO did manage to evade it, and will probably continue to evade it happily. Also some billboards are now empty, and are still covering up the tree line, because nobody wants to spend another cent giving the amount of money everyone had to pay up for this. I've actually moved out from Cracow shortly after this legislation, not directly because of it, but this surely contributed to the decision. The direction Cracow is heading to is clear -- you will have nothing and you'll be happy.
- ktosobcy 2y agoWhat were other reasons?
- lifestyleguru 2y ago3.5k EUR per meter for a flat in commie block perhaps? Cheap outsourcing jobs where you're old reaching a mere 40? Aggressive football hooligans?
- self_awareness 2y agoNot sure why this is greyed out, every point is true. There was even a situation a few weeks ago where a guy went to the office with an axe and attacked someone. The guy wasn't even a football hooligan I think. https://www.wprost.pl/kraj/11746912/krakow-wtargnal-z-siekiera-do-biurowca-zaatakowal-pracownika-nowe-informacje.html https://www.wprost.pl/kraj/11746912/krakow-wtargnal-z-siekie...
- ktosobcy 2y ago> 3.5k EUR per meter for a flat in commie block perhaps? Thank Koalicja Developerska and PiS for inflating property market... but meh "investors" > Cheap outsourcing jobs where you're old reaching a mere 40? 40 of what? > Aggressive football hooligans? When? Kraków is quite safe, especially compared to other places in Europe..
- skeletal88 2y agoWhen travelling through Poland then the contrast of visual pollution by billboards and other advertisements has been very big, between for example Estonia, Latvia, the nordic countries and Poland. In Poland basically everything is covered in huge adveretisements, "Kantor" here and there, car repair shops, etc. On bus stops all the walls are covered in them and there is even something on top of it, facing the road. Drinving there is tiring, the brain just gets tired from it. We think its part of slavic culture or something.
- Rinzler89 2y ago>We think its part of slavic culture or something. It isn't. It's the same, or worse, in Romania. It's just rabid unregulated capitalism of the post communist countries, gone wild, where everything is about making as much money as possible any way you can, which means advertising everywhere so you can influence people to spend their money with you. Romania is now IRL what the internet looks like without ad block. The ads for gambling and betting are the most nefarious, to the point it's becoming a societal issue.
- imajoredinecon 2y agoSame deal here in Chicago compared to the West Coast city where I previously lived
- oblio 2y ago> The ads for gambling and betting are the most nefarious, to the point it's becoming a societal issue. To that point: https://imgur.com/UWqa8jX https://imgur.com/UWqa8jX
- TremendousJudge 2y agoWhy the pharmacies? I noticed the same thing visiting Vegas, half the shops on the strip are pharmacies
- oblio 2y ago
- Mistletoe 2y agoThis is so wonderful. One instantly goes from feeling like a consumption robot to feeling human, just from looking at the pics. I wish this was everywhere. https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/11sbctl/krak%C3%B3w_before_and_after_new_billboard_law/ https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/11sbctl/krak%C3%B3w...
- 627467 2y ago> (e.g. covers of renovation works can contain up to 50% of advertising area, so we have renovations of just finished buildings only to put the covers with ads). Actually finetuning the policies and regulations may provide the right incentive to both promote regular upkeep of buildings as well as funding them. Example: Ads over scaffold are only allowed every 5 years during renovations.
- xnx 2y agoMixed blessing of the coming AR (augmented reality) adscape is that virtual ads projected into our eyeballs will be cheaper and more targeted/effective than meatspace billboards.
- arresin 2y agoI hope there will be a ublock origin AR edition.
- brodo 2y agoAR “metaverse” stuff did not take off on the last hype cycle, and even Apple's VR headset does not sell. If AR is “coming,” it is coming rather slowly.
- bornfreddy 2y agoAR is "coming" in the same way smartphones were coming for years (decades?). Then iPhone happened and the rest is history. Technology needs to reach a level where it becomes obviously useful (for AR - low weight, cool form, not tiring,...)
- justinclift 2y agoAnd that's pretty much the whole reason why Facebook/Meta can't be trusted with this stuff. :(
- mbesto 2y agoCurrently in Krakow, this city is absolutely gorgeous for the eastern bloc. Now I understand why.
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago> should be banned everywhere Totally agree. Particularly vexed by New York letting Sidewalk Labs put these billboards across our streets [1]. [1] https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15793792/link-nyc.0.1494456488.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0.09765625,0,99.8046875,100 https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/u...
- chrisco255 2y agoThey are probably paying the city revenue.
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago> are probably paying the city revenue They absolutely are.
- crabmusket 2y agoAt least that one isn't blocking the footpath unlike what we've been dealing with in Sydney: https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/ridiculous-electronic-billboards-slammed-as-modernising-goes-wrong/news-story/e70e66ae11c22eb71f13f76e4efcbfe2 https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/ridiculous-electron...