wejetset - magazine - Travel Briefing: A Growing City Trend to Ban Billboards

Travel Briefing: A Growing City Trend to Ban Billboards

Can you imagine a billboard free Shibuya or Time Square? Advertisements, lights and blinking billboards are embedded in the ecology of so many cities. Although it’s argued that an ad free city would be pleasant, we have to admit… we quietly love the collage that billboards present. Especially when placed in parts of the city where people expect to see an advertisement spectacle.

Recently, Jaunted posted an interesting article noting a trend in city regulations and billboard advertisement. Cited as “visual pollution” more and more cities are leaning toward city-wide bans on billboards. Brazil’s Sao Paulo and China’s Xi’An have adopted the city-wide billboard ban, while cities like Cleveland, Ohio are working toward implementing the regulation. As Jaunted states, “Could billboard prohibition be the new smoking ban?”