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A World Without Advertising


"Ever wondered what a world without visible outdoor advertising would look like? These impressive pictures show what would happen if out of home advertising were completely banned and all existing ad messages removed virtually overnight.
After being increasingly frustrated by media buyers refusal to play by the rules the city council passed ordnance that outright banned all forms of visible outdoor advertising.
Existing outdoor sites have now been stripped of their creative and this is the dramatic result.
The city has a kind of end of the world feel about it."




from the pitch HK (Hong Kong, Marketing Magazine)

I think if it came down to it, they would remove the structures that held the billboards also, or paint over the ugly walls, maybe get some landscape architects in to plant some trees. These billboard ghosts remind me of another set of ads I saw recently, I will post them tomorrow. I couldn't believe there were billboards out there that embrace the empty, pretend-im-not-here space, or "sampling it's environment".

“A World Without Advertising”

  1. Blogger Luke Says:

    Have you heard a similar thing is currently happening in Auckland? The city council is considering banning billboards in the central city, and of course all the ad agencies have gotten together and are making variously bizarre and vacuous, but presumably heartfelt, claims about the billboards adding "creative flair" and "aesthetic interest" to the city. I haven't really been keeping a close eye on it, but I imagine you could get a bit from The Herald's website?

    I think you're right about the effect of just removing the 2D design and leaving the structures up... they look a bit apocolyptic because you can tell the support sturctures have lost there use-value (so make an area look 'poor' or something). I like your mentioning that landscape architects could be employed to redesign these sites. I guess it's hypocritical to some degree, but I'd be happy to live in an ad-free city with more walkways, parks, and gardens. I presume most people would?

    The interesting question (maybe) is whether these things — billboards in this case — are enriching the relationships we have with our environments?

    Obviously 'signs' are different in the sense that they act as locators for particular businesses or whatever... so they're rhetorical like billboards on one hand, but are 'useful' information also.

    Another project you could look into (although I'm not sure how/where?) is Fiona Jack's masters (from Elam or AUT?) project where she got sponsorship to put up billboards all over Auckland and then used them to advertise 'Nothing'. It's not an entirely new idea, and I thought the way she approached it was kinda cheesy, but I think it'd be good for the contextual side of your research to be aware of this sort of stuff. Maybe you should have a quick look at Adbusters too... but just to be aware. I don't think you should go too far into that territory because I think the last 10 years has shown it to be somewhat of a dead-end. And also your interests seem elsewhere?

  2. Blogger Chloe Geoghegan Says:

    hey galina,

    i really like these photos and the concept behind them. did you take them from around where you are or did you get them from an article...?
    i guess they are eventually going to be filled with something when the council or who ever is trying to stop the visual pollution theme of billboards ads realised that there is big money in them...how long have they been bare for?

    i enjoy the reference that the empty structures left are a statement in themselves and praps draw focus on other billboards as one travels thru the city- thus endorsing everyother billboards by placing them in the endangered category!!
    (seem em before they could disapear for good)

  3. Blogger galina Says:

    Hey Chloe,
    Thanks for your very interesting critique. If you click on "results" (in white text) in that page you can see the flickr website where i got those image from.

    A couple of those shots are actually quite nice aesthetically... but only from a 'im a fine arts student' perspective if you know what I mean.

    I do think they look very bare, ghost like and don't send the right message across... If the billboards are gone, why leave the structure still up??

    No, i don't know how long they have been like that for.

    Hows your 3rd year research project coming along? Are you looking into any interesting topics?