David Ogilvy, the father of modern advertising, said, “Man is at his vilest when he erects a billboard”. A public consultation exercise on billboards and advertising was carried out earlier this year. The first sentence in this exercise claimed that the display of outdoor advertising is a common feature of commercial activity.
Thankfully, the consultation document did acknowledge that a balance had to be reached between the need to protect the environment and the commercial interest of advertisers to promote their products and services in the most prominent places.
But nobody seems to have questioned whether, in this day of social media, we need billboards at all to communicate with consumers. Now that regulations have been published, apparently allowing more billboards along one of the most scenic roads in Malta, I would like to reiterate that the elements on either side of the balance are not equal, and therefore the ‘balance’ ought to be weighted in favour of the defence of the environment.
Although a ban on billboards may be inconceivable in our current marketing-mad island city-state, it is worth taking note of places in the world where the residents have decided that it is perhaps very conceivable to live without billboards.
Advertising private interests in public space is a long-standing abuse of the public interest
In September 2006, the city of Sao Paolo in Brazil was one of the first places in the world to ban all billboard advertising in the city (including advertising in transit and in front of stores). When the ban was put in place, the city businessmen warned of a loss of $133 million in business and a net job loss of 20,000.
Nevertheless, 15,000 billboards and 300,000 oversized storefront signs were removed, and when the situation was reviewed in 2011, 70 per cent of the city residents found the ban beneficial to the city.
The removal of billboards and slogans exposed beautiful architectural detail and a hidden urban beauty.
The mayor, Gilberto Kassab, called the billboards “visual pollution”.
Chennai, India, banned the erection of billboards in 2009. Several US states, including Vermont, Maine, Hawaii, Alaska are billboard free. In 2014, Grenoble became the first European city to ban commercial street advertising, replacing 326 advertising signs with community spaces and trees – what an example!
Bergen has done the same thing. In 2011, Paris put in place plans to reduce billboards by a third. Tehran replaced all 1,500 billboards with art for 10 days.
The UN special rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, Farida Shaheed, has called on Member States to be mindful of the influence of commercial advertising and marketing on public space: “We need to rebalance the use of public space.”
This is exactly the point.
This is public space, our space, and, frankly, nobody has the right to make money out of our space. In fact, we need to acknowledge that advertising private interests in public space is a long-standing abuse of the public interest.
Do the authorities in Malta have the guts to embrace these examples, to the benefit of the quality of our environment?
Can we be a leading model to the region in something which, for a change, is not about selling Malta by the kilo?
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
Alex Torpiano is dean of the Faculty for the Built Environment and president of the Chamber of Architects and Civil Engineers.