Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
A city without no advertising? It really exists and it's flourishing...
Five years ago, the 7th most populous city in the world passed the Clean City Law. Every billboard, poster and bus ad was removed to combat 'visual pollution'. Did the city collapse overnight? Was business ruined? Did people not know what to buy anymore?!! Er...no. São Paulo couldn't be happier.
Read the full story here
Surely time to take stock of the damage this visual pollution does to our quality of life...starting at the Harringay Bridge, perhaps?
Tags for Forum Posts: advertising, billboards
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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No, let's start hypomicro and hyperlocal: every missing cat notice strangling every tree trunk and lamp-post on Wightman Road gets slashed and greencrated, as from midnight .
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Permalink Reply by StephenBln on
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OAE has got a point.. it's a phenomenon found all over the place ..
from Miami, FL
to *cough* (you know where)..
Why does today's generation have a need for this type of communication? Do people actually feel isolated in the fast media world of 2011 and/or are they seeking attention?
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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He may have a point but it is a minor one. The difference between billboards and this kind of advertising is that you have control over it. You can remove it. It is not 'legal' although generally tolerated in a spirit of caring but you can simply take it down, if it bothers you. A lamp post as a form of unofficial neighbourhood noticeboard is not a major irritation and may even be a sign of a healthy one.
This, on the other hand, is. Legal, giant, illuminated and towering over a community that has recently suffered from violence and destruction. Presumably if Alan S, who took the photo, tried to remove it he would be charged with criminal damage, just as Tunbridge would if he was discovered sawing the banner on the bridge down.
Alan has begun a set on Flickr
I also doubt that this form of advert is as successful as the advertisers would have you believe. It is merely stamping a brand on a community. As the above article suggests, removing this form of lazy advertising from the landscape encourages businesses to be more inventive and also benefits the local businesses as their local environment becomes more attractive for customers. How does an ad for Sainsbury's or McDo at the bridge benefit the small supermarkets or food outlets further down the strip? I'm guessing that they don't.
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Yes, I see your point LIz.. but to stop it needs regulation - a dirty word in the UK. I could give comparisons, but they are not popular.
BTW, Thanks for using this photo.. even as a kid I alway thought that this building stuck out like a sore thumb. Obviously, the builders & speculators thought that the whole block including the 'Palace Theatre' would eventually all be buildings of this height, but it didn't turn out that way.
The Launderette sign dates from the 1960s. Also of interest, Tottenham High Road's first supermarket - a 'Fine Fare' and a good eight years or so before Sainsburys became a supermarket, was located on the left of the building - where the red signs now are.
I've looked through my photos to see if I have an earlier comaprison view. But only have this one looking from the other direction at a vibrant shopping centre in 1961.
Enlargement here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/isarsteve/6484160345/sizes/o/in/photos...
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Just how hard would we need to work to have something done about this though? I'm sure the advertising lobby can spend millions ensuring that they still have a business on our high streets but this is supposed to be a democracy. I can't even see a referendum getting any traction. Time for some criminal damage methinks.
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He may have a point but it is a minor one.
I agree with Nick John. But let's start with the minor and possible - in a spirit of total caring, of course, but aware that 'de minimis non curat lex'. Stray cats is where it's at.
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You wander about taking down lost cat signs if you want to, OAE. If a bit of paper sellotaped to a lamp post is really that much of an annoyance, as I said above, there is nothing to stop you.
Small paper ads made by locals asking for help are small potatoes compared to the weight of big business and their endless need to stick ads in your face. The pollution equivalent of your accidentally dropped receipt on the way back from the shops, in relation to a three piece suite dumped in the Passage.
There is no doubt that in contrast to official attitudes to your lost cat ad removal efforts (you may even get an award for services to the community), the full weight of the law would no doubt prevent John from taking a little direct action on paid for advertising space, unless some kind soul passed a Clean City Act (Boris?)...not that I'm sure that would necessarily deter John.
Here's how to get started if there's anyone up for it. I, of course, would not condone such subversion of the ads in our public spaces.
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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Not a valid comparison Liz. The receipt was accidentally dropped - the fly posting is deliberate.
I'm OK with lost-cat posters since they may lead to the rescue of a frightened and hungry animal.
But I don't like, and do take action against, flyposts advertising anything commercial, like Funky Brownz, Football Academy, hairdressers and pop-up shops.
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In terms of intention, it is valid. People putting up cat signs have no intention of causing pollution in the same way as the accidental drop wasn't trying to litter. It seems a petty thing to complain about while shrugging our shoulders at big business covering every spare space with pictures of largely useless products they are trying to flog us.
Fly posting is illegal and commercial fly posting should be reported and penalties can be enforced.
Hoardings, bus shelter posters, banners on bridges and mile high illuminated signs are not illegal and often cover up what would give us more pleasure; architecture, bridges or just plain open space.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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Hear hear
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