Aap! - Alternative Advertising Possibilities

Sao Paulo is South America’s Tokyo - a massive jungle of concrete - layers and layers of people mashed through out door media, neon and matching grafiti, movement, layers of systems of transportation, eras of buildings growing off each other like wild mushrooms.
We love Sao Paulo for its intensity and color. We’re inspired by its people and its creativity and as an outdoor media company we sometimes focus on the visual that is communicated by and to its residents. In Sao Paulo - the impact of advertising is impossible to ignore – giant sky scraper walls are covered in massive space, screened street posters line favala walls showing the uninhited nature of Brazilian society. We’re inspired by how far marketers are taking outdoor media in the city – an inspiration for our work globally.

But Sao Paulo’s mayor, Gilberto Kassab, takes a dim view of this non-stop barrage of product promotion - much of which, admittedly, has been put up illegally.

From a BBC article on the topic we learn:

Mr. Kassab calls it [advertising] “visual pollution” - and if he has his way, all big public advertising displays will soon be banned from the city.

Mr Kassab has submitted a bill to the Sao Paulo city council that would completely change the urban environment, prohibiting practically all outdoor ads in their present form. “I know the bill is radical, but it’s emblematic,” he says. “It’s controversial, but necessary for the city.”

“Ordinary Paulistanos are not too keen, fearing that the city’s grey concrete would look even greyer without the generous splashes of colour provided by advertising.

“It would be like New York without Times Square,” said one. “No, it would be like eastern Europe before the fall of communism,” said another.

Others have dismissed the initiative as a publicity stunt by Mr Kassab, but Brazil’s advertising agencies are worried.

Back on the streets of Sao Paulo, Mr Kassab wants to replace the hoardings with “street furniture” - bus shelters, information panels and kiosks like the ones in London or Paris.

Our take - Remove the colors and splash that the graffiti and advertising offer the city and you’d be lined with a concrete drab of brutal grey. More – remove advertising and you’ll remove a steady stream of revenue share from advertisers with city governments.

Anyway one know of an online petition to keep color and creativity in Sao Paulo?

[ Source: Img #1, Img #2 ]