Can you imagine McDonalds without its famous golden arches, or Nike without its ever present swoosh? Imagine if you lived in a world wiped free from ads – how exactly would that look? As it turns out this is not a new concept.
Back in 2011 the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil made a decision to completely ban outdoor advertising. This meant eliminating all billboards, posters banners and signs that could point towards any particular business. One can easily imagine that such a feat would be rather difficult, especially in a major city. But the city has managed to eliminate all forms of marketing outdoors.
As you can imagine eliminating advertising would cause quite a stir among major companies like McDonalds that are recognizable solely by their logos. In the years that followed, several lawsuits were filed against the city of Sao Paulo by large companies like McDonalds, but all were dismissed when the law was officially passed.
At this stage the city has removed all forms of advertising outside, though city leadership still fears that a loophole in the law will be found and exploited. The city is currently in the process of installing several bus stops, and city leaders have expressed fears that these structures will be deemed as ‘inside’ and therefore viable places to advertise. To date this has not happened, but the city remains aware of the possibility.
What would happen if our cities all followed the example of Sao Paulo? We can surely assume that there would be a massive decrease in spontaneous purchases, which could have many positive benefits. For example, if we never saw a McDonalds sign outside, we would have far fewer cravings for fast food and as a result a lower obesity rate. Or on a broader scale, if we were exposed to less advertising we would be less prone to spending money on unnecessary products we would have a mark improvement in our economy, and a decrease in the poverty levels in our cities.
As you can see there are several benefits to decreasing the amount of advertising in the world around us. These things, and many more are slowly becoming more and more obvious in the city of Sao Paulo, as they would here, if our governments would follow the same example.
Thanks for reading! Hope this post gave you something to think about.
-Sean