Dash Two’s Media Director, OOH writes, “Over the past 15 years, a handful of cities and states worldwide have adopted ordinances banning billboards and other outdoor signs in what they call an effort to reduce visual clutter and “reclaim” public spaces for the community."

It’s time to call out urban ad-free zones for what they are: a failed experiment.

Over the past 15 years, a handful of cities and states worldwide have adopted ordinances banning billboards and other outdoor signs in what they call an effort to reduce visual clutter and “reclaim” public spaces for the community. While those sound like noble goals, the reality has been something quite different. Implementation of such bans has proven shortsighted and decidedly anti-business.

Ad-free zones, also called adblocking, have prompted lost revenue, reduced funding for public transit, and a competitive disadvantage for local businesses fighting for relevance in a challenging economy.

Sometimes ideas don’t work. Municipalities should cut their losses and admit this is one of those times.

Case Study: São Paulo Ban Sparks Lawsuits and an Ad Market Collapse

In 2007, São Paulo instituted the Lei Cidade Limpa ordinance, the brainchild ofthen-Mayor Gilberto Kassab, an economist and engineer who compared the city’s ad clutter to air and water pollution. He backed the policy as a gateway to urban renewal.

More than 15,000 billboards and some 300,000 oversized business signs were removed, but the change has not produced the results that Kassab wanted.

Clear Channel unsuccessfully sued São Paulo, with a court upholding the rule’s constitutionality. The damage was done, and the ad market in the city cratered. What’s worse, São Paulo overcorrected. Even graffiti images that had been a local source of pride and a much-lauded international example of artistic achievement were removed.

Instead of the urban renaissance promised by Kassab, the city looks dumpy now, without the vibrancy and color that defines so many of Brazil’s great cities. In addition to the drab appearance, São Paulo is leaving badly needed revenue on the table, at a time when it could use the dough amid climbing federal interest rates and tightening credit squeezing the entire country.

Lessons Learned in Chennai and Beyond: Evolving Ad-Free Zones

São Paulo could perhaps take a page from Chennai, India, which outlawed new billboard installations in 2009. Instead of creating a permanent ban, Chennai has read the room. It eventually permitted new structures that pass rigorous structural stability checks and safety audits.

This allows the best of both worlds:

• Unsafe or unsightly boards don’t overrun the city.
• The city enjoys the visual, economic and tourism benefits that billboards provide.

Paris, too, has made similar changes, cutting public ad space by about a third instead of outright banning it. In Oregon, a state that prioritizes green initiatives, new billboards are allowed when an existing one is removed.

If there’s one thing the outdoor industry is known for, it’s creativity. There are plenty of inventive, imaginative ways to make outdoor advertising environmentally conscious while avoiding visual clutter and maintaining a vital source of revenue. Cities and states would be better off embracing these solutions and dropping the business-strangling ad-free zones that simply don’t work.

If you’re interested in submitting content for future editions, please reach out to our Managing Editor, Barbie Romero at Barbie@MediaPost.com.