The spectrum of outdoor advertising

—From Jimmy

I was walking through London this morning and came across this really cool piece of advertising art on Manette Street that must have taken hours to put together. I think there missing a trick though as there was no brand present and it was located on a back street… A+ for effort though.

However, it brings up an intersting point: when a brand is missing from an advert, does it lose its impact?

Within Naomi Klein’s famous book ‘No Logo’ she talks of a prolific presence of outdoor advertising, to walk down the street and not be subjected to brand names and advertising campaigns is somewhat of impossibility.

Within the western world we have a hard time imagining it, however in Sao Paulo the mindset is somewhat different. In January 2007 the face of Sao Paulo changed. Known as one of the world’s busiest financial centres, the city has been stripped of much of its outdoor advertising after its Mayor passed a bill against ‘visual pollution’.

Skeleton-like billboards, devoid of adverts, now line many streets here as if a small hurricane had swept through the city, tearing down the gigantic posters that once towered over each street corner. ‘We have to clean up the city,’ town hall representative Andrea Matarazzo recently vowed. ‘The sector’s businessmen can change their activities or go to other areas [but they cannot stay] here.’

To see the effects of this change check out the Flickr Photo Stream.