One of the nice side effects of hosting the Olympics was the ban on new advertising billboards in the downtown core of Atlanta. There are a few old signs that w

One of the nice side effects of hosting the Olympics was the ban on new advertising billboards in the downtown core of Atlanta. There are a few old signs that were grandfathered in but it's close to impossible to get new billboards added. One of the nice side effects of having a tornado rip through downtown a decade later was that it destroyed some of the grandfathered in billboards which the city did not allow to be replaced despite crying from the billboard companies. To prevent "ambush marketing", the IOC demands control over advertising in the area around the games. Given what a big deal it was for a city like Atlanta to get to host the games, this was one of the few times when the public was going to win despite the money and influence of the advertising industry. To its credit, Atlanta has mostly stuck by those Olympic era billboard laws. The biggest exception probably is the huge video board next to the Ernst & Young building but it replaced a much more modest video sign that had already been there. Being a large city, Atlanta has the resources to fight court challenges against the well funded advertising industry. Several of the suburban and exurban communities I lived in had citizens and governments united in their hatred of billboards but they lacked the resources to prevent them as the billboard companies have lots of experience with bleeding local governments dry in court, sending a message to other local governments to not even bother trying to oppose them. Big cities however can do better... if they wish to. Los Angeles, you have an opportunity in 2028. Will you take advantage of it like Atlanta did?