15 ms·
Let's Ban Billboards
- eru 2y agoThe whole proposal is economically illiterate. If billboards have negative externalities, then tax those; don't ban them.
- ccleve 2y agoHow do you place a value on aesthetics? Or driver distraction? Or the irritation I feel when I see 50 billboards for cannabis every time I drive down the road near my house?
- eru 2y agoIt's not harder than placing values on human lives, yet we manage to do so just fine for cost-benefit analysis of eg road safety.
- MyOutfitIsVague 2y agoWhat's the tax value of "my city looks like a garish parade of bullshit I don't need"?
- eru 2y agoEh, if company wants to contribute a billion bucks to city coffers in order to put up a single billboard, that's surely worth the small amount of inconvenience. So I hope we established that there is a finite tax that's large enough to cover the negative externalities. Now we just need to figure out what finite amount of taxation is reasonable. > What's the tax value of "my city looks like a garish parade of bullshit I don't need"? Different municipalities (and their voters) can differ in how much they value money vs aesthetics. There's no one size fits all solution.
- codingdave 2y agoI mostly agree... but at the same time, in my city billboards also have specific regulations, ordinances, and an approval cycle before a governance committee. Maybe there is a middle ground between "allow everything" and "ban everything", which is simply to update the city code to put guidelines and review on them?
- sidrag22 2y agoi agree, but not even a middle ground, like a small amount of exceptions for iconic advertisements, such as stuff on sides of buildings like the old Jordan jumpman thing in Chicago. or other stuff that ADD to a city rather than make it worse.
- dankwizard 2y agoI hadn't considered trying to apply uBlock Origin to my real life.
- iambateman 2y agoThis made me laugh. :)
- delichon 2y agoHow about if we don't make lots of wide authoritarian bans to make people behave according our will instead of their own. How about if we rule the world from the bottom up instead of the top down? What if we just mostly, you know, live and let live? Going with free speech, including billboards, is a good place to start trying out such a wild plan.
- bdangubic 2y agoanarchy, eh? lawlesness is what you pitch is?
- Vaslo 2y agoPeople like you say this until the other party is in power, and bans stuff you don’t like, then you will cry about free speech too. I won’t die on the hill of saving billboards anymore than id die on the hill of not taxing billionaires but sorry, whats fair is fair.
- bdangubic 2y agoI am actually arguing quite the opposite, I am very anti-banning but where do you draw the line? it is a fine line between lawlessness and allowing bunch of idiots (regardless of which "political party" they are affiliated with) to make these decisions. so how do you get this done? obviously lawlessness is not the answer?
- __MatrixMan__ 2y agoWhat kind of "bottom up" perspective gives a damn about protecting billboards?
- erelong 2y agoyeah I don't think it should be banned
- tombert 2y agoBillboards are obnoxious, ugly, and as the article pointed out, have basically no oversight from city design boards, meaning that they're not under any obligation to look nice. In fact, there's almost a reverse incentive; if it clashes with the rest of the city's aesthetic, you're much more likely to notice it. I don't really see how it's hurting "free speech" to restrict billboards. No one is suggesting we regulate the speech, no one is telling these companies what to say, we just don't want big ugly billboards blasting in our face and making our cities look terrible. You're of course free to disagree with this, but you almost certainly draw the line somewhere. If I went and dumped a bunch of trash and feces into the middle of the street every day, you probably wouldn't be outraged when I eventually get a ticket, and I doubt that making a "free speech" argument would get me out of that fine, even if I explained the artistic merit of me doing that.
- llimllib 2y agoMaine banned billboards state-wide a long time ago and it’s great Vermont, Alaska and Hawaii have as well, according to the internet
- josephg 2y agoYeah I visited Honolulu a few years ago. It took me a couple days to notice why the city sort of felt visually quieter than my home city. I love it - and it was horrible seeing billboards everywhere when I got home.
- brewtide 2y agoI rarely leave the state, and I'm always aghast at the real world. Shh. It's nice and quiet here!
- scottcha 2y agoPretty sure Seattle (maybe King County) doesn't allow billboards. You can really tell when you pass the banned area when driving south on I-5 getting close to Tacoma. Also if interested the opening scenes of The Monkey Wrench Gang (by Edward Abbey) are about illegally cutting down billboards in Southwest Utah.
- anon7000 2y agoThere are a couple in downtown Seattle maybe it’s on I5? Example: https://maps.app.goo.gl/W6HbwSC4eFYYG3sW8 https://maps.app.goo.gl/W6HbwSC4eFYYG3sW8
- c22 2y agoFrom [0]: In the early 1960s, Washington was one of the first states to successfully ban billboards from freeways. An exception can be seen in the lands owned by the Puyallup Tribe along I-5 near Fife, where massive billboards and video screens now flank both sides of the freeway. (Being classified as sovereign nation, the Puyallups can have their own sign laws.) If that state ban had not passed, you would now be seeing hundreds of similar signs from Vancouver to Bellingham, from Port Angeles to Spokane. The City of Seattle, like many other cities, later passed a law limiting the installation of more billboards, aka off-premises signs. This was an outgrowth of a national effort to reduce the proliferation of commercial advertising that was spoiling our views of mountains, lakes, forests, pastoral lands, and architectural landmarks. It also took an inventory of billboards, ordering removal of those that had been erected without permits. The City’s law was challenged in court by Ackerley Communications, the owner of most of the billboards in Seattle. The courts upheld the law but the dilemma was that there were scores of billboards in all corners of the city. So a deal was struck that if a billboard that was near certain sensitive locations, like schools or parks or homes, and was then removed, a new one could be erected in certain acceptable locations elsewhere. Many billboards are installed in parking lots or vacant lots that have since been developed and those could not be replaced, as sign owners lost the leases. So, therefore, over time, the number of billboards would gradually decrease. [0]: https://www.cascadepbs.org/2012/08/hinshaw-billboards https://www.cascadepbs.org/2012/08/hinshaw-billboards
- thierrydamiba 2y agoBillboards must be terrible for property value, I’m surprised that alone hasn’t caused them to become more sparse.
- amazingamazing 2y agoWhere’s the specific bill to support?
- nmcfarl 2y agoI grew up in Alaska which has a billboard ban. And then I went to Florida for university, and while there was a lot of culture shock I really think that the in your face billboards everywhere where the biggest bit. Huge aggressive grabs for attention when you really should be paying attention to the road really should not be allowed.
- iambateman 2y agoSo fascinating. I’ve grown up on the east coast and it never even occurred to me as a possibility until a HN thread yesterday. Alaska, Hawaii, and Vermont are way ahead of the rest of the country on this, that’s for sure.
- MarcelOlsz 2y agoSimilar here but sort of the opposite, grew up with advertising and I didn't think it could possibly get worse. Then I visited Florida for the first time in a long time and I saw a floating ad on the water. Killed the trip entirely for me.
- adonovan 2y agoI once made a long drive through Vermont and was stunned at the absence of car-culture detritus compared to almost any other freeway I've seen in the US. Without all the gas stations and strip malls you can barely see the highway from a distance; it just disappears into the forest.
- kelnos 2y agoI do find billboards annoying, but they're like 2% of the problem.
- lolinder 2y agoKill billboards and you move the Overton window. Billboards are a no-brainer, so if we can't control them then we have no hope for any ads of any sort. If we can eliminate them then we can start on the next thing.
- mplanchard 2y agoThey are banned here in Vermont, and it’s great. Going across the border to New York or Massachusetts is always a shock. They’re just so ugly.
- kyralis 2y agoAgreed. It makes for a very obvious difference when we cross the river into New Hampshire. One of the things I love about living here.
- Sparkyte 2y agoJust ban all advertising.
- ripped_britches 2y ago[flagged]
- grues-dinner 2y agoCancer treatment is bad for health too, but it's worth it to cut out and kill cancer before it kills the host. Not everything that is "bad for the economy" is bad for the humans who have to live under it.
- ripped_britches 2y agoI will just let you live with your comparison between an ad and cancer. Try it out on someone is is battling or lost someone.
- grues-dinner 2y agoI've had cancer, I have the scars and the lifelong effects from the surgery and chemo. Don't try that emotional shit on me. I'll make whatever comparison I damn well want. In fact you're right that it's an inappropriate comparison, because the cancer didn't do what it did on purpose.
- josephg 2y agoHow? People would still use their money to buy things. A lot of advertising is adversarial. If demand stays the same but neither you nor your competitors can advertise your products, everyone makes more money. Of course, there are lots of products where people don't know they would benefit from the product - or don't think of it. For example, life insurance, business loans, university education, movie releases, etc. In those cases, arguably the advertising is creating a positive for society. (Since its resulting in a need being addressed that wouldn't be addressed otherwise.)
- Taek 2y agoAdvertising is a parasitic force on society. It sucks up your attention with a willful intention to change your purchasing behaviour, often knowing that the new behavior is worse for you. If ads were merely about being informative, they would be boring. But ads want to manipulate, so they have to be flashy and appeal to your emotions. They pollute your mental headspace, and have no place in a healthy society. Let's ban billboards. And then let's follow that up with a general purpose ban on paid advertisement.
- tptacek 2y agoWell, in between step 1 ("ban billboards") and step 3 ("ban advertisement") you'd need step 2 ("repeal the First Amendment of the United States Constitution").
- gkoberger 2y agoThey're banned in 4 US states already, with seemingly no infringement on the 1st Amendment. Legally speaking, the validity of banning billboards tends to be evaluated based on the Central Hudson test. More practically, there's numerous limitations to commercial speech... for example, you can't blare an audio ad from your rooftop.
- tptacek 2y agoBillboards? Banning billboards is fine by me. Banning all advertising is unconstitutional.
- whateveracct 2y agoBanning targeted advertising probably wouldn't be.
- bee_rider 2y agoI’d rather ban the behavior required for targeting (building invasive dossiers on everyday normal people), than the (admittedly annoying) speech.
- ripped_britches 2y agoIt seems unlike digital ads, the billboard ROI is quite low Where I live it’s mostly ads for injury attorneys and strip clubs. I’d be fine without them
- the__alchemist 2y agoVegas
- levocardia 2y agoBillboards are expensive and untargeted, so you need very high profit per acquired customer. Hence: law firms, sports betting, etc. Or you can go the long-term brand awareness route, hence alcohol, fast food, etc.
- tptacek 2y agoHow about instead we fix the local ordinances, many of which were originally installed to prevent Black families from moving into white enclaves, that allow public bodies to function as armed HOAs? Seems like a smaller lift than banning advertising. I don't care about billboards, but the real complaint in this article isn't about billboards.
- josephg 2y agoWhy not both? These policies aren't in opposition. I think its great that lots of different people campaign for lots of different policies which will improve our cities.
- janosett 2y agoFeels like a possibly important but unrelated issue. Is there some connection to billboards?
- tptacek 2y agoIt's discussed in the article.
- marcusb 2y agoThat’s interesting, because I read the article and it seems like a straightforward rant against billboards. The discussion here - except for your comment - is about either billboards or advertising in general. If the article is really a metaphor for something else (racist town ordinances? zoning in general? something else?) I think a lot of us have missed it. Perhaps you could enlighten us.
- tptacek 2y agoI don't think it's a metaphor, I just think it observes a municipality demanding a business tear down and rebuild a facade for aesthetic reasons and uses that as a justification for banning billboards. Ban all the billboards you want, but municipalities should not be enforcing those aesthetic rules.
- erelong 2y agoI hesitate to suggest this but why not just contact anyone advertising asking them to not use billboards for the reasons you have, to the point where a lot of people will take down their billboards as they'll consider them to have a negative impact on their business? Suggest to businesses not to use billboards for the reasons you have, instead of trying to ban the practice.
- nashashmi 2y agoThe most basic billboard is a sign for your business. Can’t ban that.
- ceejayoz 2y agoI live a town in which the bar in the village downtown is completely unlabeled, because the town code forbids it. Their website brags about being "A white brick building with no sign". (They have a big sign inside.)
- MarcelOlsz 2y agoSopot in Poland banned all billboards. I'm excited to visit and see how it feels. Amazing I reckon.
- monktastic1 2y agoOh, thank God. I only visited Portland once, and despite being vastly different from Austin in climate and flora, the sea of billboards made it feel eerily familiar (and not in a good way). I expected it to feel more like Seattle, but that one thing made a world of difference.
- nobody9999 2y agoPoland != Portland. But very close as they're both in the Northern Hemisphere, although not on the same continent. Sopot, Poland[0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sopot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sopot
- monktastic1 2y agoLol, don't know how my mind filled in those letters, but that was indeed my Portland experience so I'll leave it.
- sadeshmukh 2y agoUntil this, I kept reading it as Poland despite reading it at least 3 times over.
- a5seo 2y agoWait, doesn’t Austin have a billboard ban? There are some billboards but they’re grandfathered in and cannot be rebuilt if they fall over. https://www.kut.org/austin/2022-04-21/advertising-companies-wanted-to-overturn-austins-billboard-rules-the-u-s-supreme-court-says-no https://www.kut.org/austin/2022-04-21/advertising-companies-...
- monktastic1 2y ago
- neves 2y agoBtw, Brazil's largest city, São Paulo, banned billboards. I believe it is better now. It incentived the spread of graffiti art thorough the city.
- Terr_ 2y agoOver in Washington state the rule for most major highways is that billboards can only advertise something which is actually being sold on the same piece of property. I think it strikes a nice balance, preventing the most egregious forms of attention pollution.
- BrenBarn 2y agoA less extreme version of this other recent post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43595269 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43595269 Billboards are banned where I live and it's great. It's interesting that this post says that where the author lives "someone can put up a 48-foot advertisement wherever they want". From other things I read I got the impression that in some (maybe many) cities a reason they're not banned is because they provide revenue, since many are on land like road medians that are controlled by local government. I'm not sure to what extent the designs themselves are reviewed but the ability to erect a billboard is regulated in such cases.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- Jimmc414 2y agoThe cost of having the first amendment is you have to tolerate voices you don’t want to hear. You can’t silence them without introducing the threat of silencing yourself.
- lolinder 2y agoThe first amendment does not require allowing people to put up enormous structures along the highway that are designed with the express intention of coaxing drivers into focusing on your product instead of the road. That falls pretty cleanly into the kind of provably and immediately dangerous speech we don't typically allow.
- cryptonector 2y agoTFA is not about the content of speech on billboards.
- hlehmann 2y ago[dead]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- trollbridge 2y agoVermont just banned billboards, period, alongside state highways (as do Hawai'i, Maine, and Alaska). There is federal highway funding for billboard ads to promote wearing seat belts. Since Vermont didn't have billboards, they had to spend the money in nearby New Hampshire instead... ... New Hampshire doesn't have any seat belt laws.
- mrguyorama 2y agoThat's funny, because Maine just puts up DOT programmable signs with funny puns about "Click it or ticket".
- dec0dedab0de 2y agoBillboards are fantastic for some kinds of advertising. Like letting you know a big comedian or musician will be in town. Honestly I like advertising in general, but Targeted ads are the problem. Billboards are the least targeted ad.
- lolinder 2y agoBillboards are targeted at a very specific demographic: drivers. They're designed to draw attention away from the road and to whatever it is that they're trying to sell. That reason alone is enough to ban billboards: we can't tell drivers they're terrible people for glancing at their phone for a second to get directions while simultaneously allowing corporations to plaster the roadway with ads that are deliberately designed to distract them.
- dec0dedab0de 2y agonobody is telling drivers they are terrible people for using a GPS
- markdown 2y agoIf I throw a pamphlet on the ground I have broken some city ordinance or law. If I blow it up so that nobody in the vicinity can avoid seeing it, then I'm all good. Bizarre. Trash is trash whether it's a piece of paper on the ground or blown up to billboard size.
- dec0dedab0de 2y agothat is a silly argument. If you put up a billboard on someone else’s property without permission that would be illegal. If you drop a pamphlet on the ground in your own yard that is perfectly legal. In your perfect billboard free world, would you also ban signs outside of a business saying what is on sale? what about signs outside a private residence? What kinds of property would be allowed to display what kinds of sign? I could see telling government agencies they cant rent billboard space out on the side of the road, but if someone puts a billboard on their roof or the edge of their property I think it would be gross to stop them.
- brailsafe 2y agoI mean, I completely disagree with the premise used to establish the argument. > After the contractors appealed the mistake, city staff required them to tear the wall out and reinstall the approved siding. This sounds to me like the most bullshit of bullshit jobs out there. Seems to me like if it was the building owners prerogative, great replace the siding, but city staff being involved in such seemingly trite issues—often with poor taste—infuriates me. Sorry, your house doesn't meet the shadow requirements, you'll have to tear it down and try again. Sorry your house is 3ft too tall based on our policy from 50 years ago. Sorry, the outside has to be beige not some other silly thing, this is a place where people come to live out the rest of their dull existence without having to contend with hue. Your fence must be white, it says so right here! That said, billboards do suck and we should ban them I guess.
- robotresearcher 2y agoIf your neighbor had planning approval on building that would not shade your yard, and then built something that would never have been approved because it shades your yard, reducing your enjoyment of your yard and the value of your house, what’s your position?
- brailsafe 2y agoI disagree with the intention to regulate such inane details of private land ownership, especially in the city. I wouldn't buy a house with the expectation that my view or my exposure to sun would be perpetually protected by the municipal government. That said, I also can't buy a house, likely never will be able to, and most likely won't want to, all partly because of such absurd bureaucracy. It's difficult to imagine being so petulant as to seek justice about such a thing unless it made my private garden unworkable. I shouldn't have a hand in what my neighbor paints their house, and that's probably more closely related than the hypothetical silly examples I established. If they literally painted a swastika, well k I guess that's an edge case.
- Alex3917 2y agoThis is what Adbusters has been supposed to be advocating for for decades. Except for that instead of just focusing on getting ads banned, they switched focus and started complaining about George W. Bush instead. And that is why we still have billboard advertising to this day. It's the best case study I know of on the importance of just sticking to your one issue and not getting caught up trying to fix everything else that's broken in the world.
- lenerdenator 2y agoMissouri talked about banning billboards in the 90s. The end result was not only did the ban not pass, but the billboard companies through up what might, in scientific terms, be called a "metric f@ckton" of them down I-70 along with the rest of the state's highways. They're ugly as dog crap. You don't realize just how many there are until you go up to Iowa and drive in a geographically-similar area and don't have to see the landscape spoiled by "LION'S DEN ADULT SUPERSTORE" and "HELL IS REAL" billboards.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- Hammershaft 2y agoDesign boards, zoning, permitting processes, etc have been a disaster for the affordability and inequality of the cities that lean into them. Advertising has serious drawbacks but these arbitrary design boards should be pared back and disempowered.
- monocasa 2y agoThey're mostly banned in Denver. I think they put a cap on them, and a new one going up means that another one has to come down. Functionally most have been eliminated because of this. There's some interesting architecture where buildings have been visibly built around an existing billboard. https://www.google.com/maps/@39.7618828,-105.0111584,3a,73.4y,147.7h,80.58t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1shHfCng76kz1cwRtbHrEFJQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D9.421197320372471%26panoid%3DhHfCng76kz1cwRtbHrEFJQ%26yaw%3D147.69907478032002!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDQwMi4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D https://www.google.com/maps/@39.7618828,-105.0111584,3a,73.4...
- dumbfounder 2y agoYou cannot put up billboards wherever you want with zero oversight as the article suggests. You would see a heck of a lot more if this were the case.
- Beijinger 2y ago"Let's Ban Billboards " I am not sure if this is right or wrong. But I have an idea how we could get the message out...
- system7rocks 2y agoMy favorite parkway in the US (at least for now) is the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. It's a National Park. It's gorgeous during the spring and fall with leafy trees exploding in color. No billboards too. Spain also prefer no billboards along their highways - at least, the one time I visited. Our tour guide pointed it out. The only billboards were from the Barcelona Olympics, I believe. It really does make a difference.
- mrexroad 2y agoWhen not commuting on metro, I always favored 295 even if traffic was slightly worse. It’s been decades, but I still vividly recall the trees being calming, even with traffic.
- notepad0x90 2y agoI dunno, the billboards in movies like Blade Runner were kind of cool. Advertising in my opinion has a UX problem, it is however inextricable from a capitalist society. It needs to look great, it needs to be consistent and it should respect user consent and privacy. That's pretty much it. Billboards don't invade your privacy or require consent, so they just need to look modern/great and be placed in areas where they won't disrupt natural and residential scenery. Unlike web-ads, they're more or less consistent but like i said earlier, I wish they were more "cool" like in scifi movies.
- jakecarpenter 2y agoI live in Alaska where billboards are banned, and it’s lovely. The ugliness of outdoor advertising is one of the first things I notice when traveling in most of the continental United States. Even without billboards, people still shop at local businesses.
- colechristensen 2y agoI agree, but I also don't care. A few people are really passionate about this, most people agree but it's just not important. Let's busy our governments with important issues and not your vanity pet problem.
- sethherr 2y agoLet’s ban design review boards that mandate aesthetic choices on siding.
- xigency 2y agoMy HOA should let me build a mudhut and a lot should cost $100. I sound sarcastic but I mean this unironically. This is a model that works in the developing world and what we had before private capital captured the real-estate market.
- cyberjerkXX 2y ago[flagged]
- foobahify 2y ago[flagged]
- dwaltrip 2y agoAre there any new ballot initiatives for ideas like this? I would support this in a heartbeat.
- forgetfreeman 2y agoBillboards would be a fine start. Next let's ban paid speech in general.
- foobahify 2y agoThat is harder. I think HN litigated this pretty hard in another thread, but delineating paid vs non-paid is not always clear.
- forgetfreeman 2y agoI'm unconvinced based on legal precedents around tobacco advertising and pharmaceutical company sales reps. There are well-established legal definitions for all relevant terms here.
- fragmede 2y agoIs this happening before or after the debt reckoning?
- stevage 2y agoThere is a billboard near me that is advertising a billboard advertising company. They use the slogan "Unmissable. Unblockable. Un[something]able." It makes me irrationally angry. They're rubbing the viewer's face in the fact that they can't avoid looking at the sign. Really gives one a strong urge to deface it.
- xrd 2y agoBrazil did this. I recall living in Portland fifteen years ago. A mural on a health food store became the center of controversy because it was permitted while advertisements weren't. Local businesses sued the city to make sure they weren't prohibited from their God given right to slap gambling ads up in front of children. This idea won't be easy to implement.
- wpollock 2y agoThe advertisers don't need billboards anymore. My car has a display for the radio (and other uses) and it displays ads that cannot be turned off.
- sakesun 2y agoWhile I think what proposed will never happen, this item is full of interesting debate.
- rgovostes 2y agoBoston sells off every square inch of public bus stop, trash can, etc. to a small number of companies that pay a pittance for the right to resell the space for advertisements. Lexington and Concord are the only places where such things are disallowed. During the pandemic I found a trash can in a suburb that had been postered with a Johnnie Walker ad for over a year, and sent in a phony request for a quote to advertise a community poetry slam event. The quote was for over $2000. Multiply that by every trash can in the city.
- zzo38computer 2y agoI also believe that billboards should be banned, inside and outside of a city. In addition to being excessive advertising which should be avoided, they also usually take up space (that could better be for trees, paths, etc). Someone has also suggested taxing them. Maybe in some cases, they can be taxed instead of banned, although in some cases probably should just be banned. Advertising signs might be permitted in some places inside of buildings (especially if they are advertising items being sold there (e.g. foods at a restaurant)), although even then it is probably best not to use too brightly lighted computer/television displays (which waste too much power and also produce too might light; in many cases, e-paper displays would be useful for commercial displays (not only advertising, but also e.g. business hours, which rarely change but sometimes do often enough (e.g. holidays) that it can help to occasionally change the display) that do not need to change very often), and they should also avoid being dishonest advertising.
- tmikaeld 2y agoIn Sweden this is already basically banned, it’s nearly impossible to get a permit to setup a billboard anywhere because it has to be approved by municipal and land owner. It’s so difficult that i know a guy that bought many chunks of land and put up a 100M high baloon advertising instead because it doesn’t cover land and is exempt. It would have worked if he didn’t make the ads so distracting that it caused an accident and he was forced to stop by order law.
- alecco 2y agoThis gets flagged to third page? (6h, 308 points)
- perilunar 2y agoFor me the test for acceptable advertising is whether I can avoid it or not: newspapers, magazines, free-to-air TV, free websites — fine; billboards, and any service I pay for — no way.
- xenospn 2y agoBillboards can make an ugly street look nicer. Cities without any billboards look like a concrete jungle. Just go to Brazil if you don’t believe me.
- Ekaros 2y agoI think this should extend to also buildings. No more any logos or names. Maybe a small directory with limited font size should be allowed.
- tbyehl 2y agoBut how will I know that I'm just 500 miles from South of the Border? Or 250 miles from the next Buc-ee's? Or be reminded not to diddle my daughter[1]? [1] https://imgur.com/MaaS5ua https://imgur.com/MaaS5ua
- beAbU 2y agoHaving moved from urban South Africa (Johannesburg/Pretoria) to a country side-ish town in Ireland (Wexford), the lack of billboards and in-your-face advertising everywhere was absolutely breath-taking. I did not realize just how mentally oppressive constant billboard advertising was until I did not see it any more wherever I go.
- anonu 2y agoI'm my town we also have strict rules on signage. Signs cannot be backlit or flashy. Generally they need to be setback from the street. This makes things harder to find but it's also easy on the eyes when you're just walking or driving around.