São Paulo Bans Billboards

A new law recently passed in São Paulo seeks the removal of billboards, neon signs, bus and taxi adverts, banners trailed by airplanes and advertising on blimps. It has met with opposition from both advertisers and "bored commuters."

"What we are aiming for is a complete change of culture," said Roberto Tripoli, president of the City Council and one of the main sponsors of the legislation.

Many businesses and advertising agencies claim the urban environment will become a sad and dangerous place. But supporters of the law see it as an opportunity to open up architecture, landscape, natural forms, natural light and natural cycles. City planners, architects and environmental advocates maintain the new "clean city" law, brings São Paulo a welcome step closer to an imagined urban ideal.

This Flickr photoset provides a wonderful glimpse of the "No Logo" environment, with the former billboard spaces on walls and roadsides stripped of their adverts. (We'd reproduce a couple here, but the photographer didn't use a Creative Commons license, so we can only suggest that you click the link above and see them for yourself.)