by Chicago local blogger team, the FB crew: On the rare occasion I find myself channel surfing the 400 networks RCN provides, I inevitably click by ESPN Classic. Now I’m not much of a sports fan but I always stop to watch a few minutes of the old NBA footage from the 70s if nothing else but for the complete lack of advertising anywhere on the screen. There are no logos on the hardwoods, no courtside ad panels turning over and over and no jumbotron commercials. Just old school hoops and knee high socks. When you watch a basketball game now, marketers even put websites on the top edge of the backboards for when the cameras give viewers the bird’s eye view of 3-seconds worth of dunk replay. Advertisers have found their way onto every square inch of available blank space. Fed up with the rampant advertising smothering his city, São Paulo’s mayor, Gilberto Kassab, passed legislature last year effectively banning all outdoor advertising in Brazil’s largest metro. (With more than 11 million people, São Paulo is about five times the size of Chicago). Six months later, the removal of all the advertising is nearly complete and the city… (more)
(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Urban Design and Planning at 12:26 PM)