Thursday, December 20, 2007

Paris' war declaration against advertising!


Advertisers love Paris, but Paris doesn't like them... Today, the Paris council decided to reduce by 1/3 the amount of advertising space in the city. This will impact not only the space in general but also the size of posters. Thus the 1,000+ 4 x 3 meters (13 x 10 feet) billboards will soon be banned and so will the 6,000 smaller ones that are on display in the windows of shopkeepers and cafés. It will also be forbidden to advertise within 50 meters (164 feet) of a school, on the embankment, in Montmartre, etc. Needless to say that this measure is pretty controversial...

26 comments:

  1. Oh how I wish we could do that in the States! Though I suppose I'd have a different view if I was in marketing or a business owner.

    This photo reminded me that I saw a Smart Car here in the Bay Area this week. If I had blinked I would have missed it! I hope they come in bright colors.

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  2. I must say huge advertising billboards irritate me too. I prefer the city not to be cluttered by these things. Why will you not be able to advertise within 50 metres of a school?? Don't get the reasoning behind it.

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  3. Will the wonderful little posters advertising art exhibitions be banned in the cafes?

    When I traveled to the communist countries in the 1970's there was no advertising allowed in the streets. Although it sounds like a reason to rejoice, these countries looked sterile and bare. Las Vegas is one extreme, Moscow in the 1970's was another. I wonder if Paris, with this new reduction, will become a standard to which other cities will try to emulate?

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  4. I'm sure advertisers will come up with something else! I just hope it doesn't mean more mobile advertising on cars and motorbikes - bad for the environment :(((

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  5. Only the French would have the guts to go ahead with such a fabulous idea!
    Well done, it will make Paris even more beautiful :)

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  6. Yes, Anne, but it could have a downfall; a dramatic increase in taxes...

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  7. I agree with phx-cdg i spent 3 months in Guernsey were there is no adds in the middle of their beautiful landscape but then you have no creativity, no free art
    (can you remember the hair dop add in france with the lion ; there even were car accidents because of the naked white skin of the girl for the opium add).
    inge

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  8. I agree with phx-cdg i spent 3 months in Guernsey were there is no adds in the middle of their beautiful landscape but then you have no creativity, no free art
    (can you remember the hair dop add in france with the lion ; there even were car accidents because of the naked white skin of the girl for the opium add).
    inge

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  9. I actually like the idea of less advertising because I think it will lead to less exploitation somehow. Paris will look much prettier without all the commercialisation. It will help to keep the creative artwork inside the galleries maybe and perhaps even inspire a higher standard of artwork (if there is such a thing).

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  10. Bonjour Eric,
    J-C.Decaux et Clearchannel font faire grise mine. Espérons que les infrastructures parisiennes ne pâtiront pas de cette mesure.
    Les adeptes de la publicité pourront néanmoins jeter un oeil au site de Culture pub, émission autrefois diffusée sur la chaîne française M6.

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  11. Rebonjour,

    Le débat sur l'affichage laisse de côté la question essentielle de ce message : qu'est-ce qu'une Nissan Micra blog ?

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  12. LOL Matthieu, c'est vrai ça, je n'avais même pas vu la mention "blog". MDR!

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  13. How excellent! I truly hate advertising.

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  14. Not a bad idea! Too much of a good thing, you know.

    Recently a proposition to put advertising on or around the Golden Gate bridge was voted down or turned down, somehow, so I guess we do, too, have our limits, even here, in a country where advertisement is being broadcast every 20 minutes on prime time TV (sometimes it feels like it's every 10 minutes!) Enough already!

    Hey, the car is cute and the ad is clever.

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  15. As a working musician I can also see the downside to removing ads in shop windows announcing performances. It's kind of nice to stumble upon a band's upcoming performance in the city by a chance viewing of a small ad in a window. I do hope a balance is found by such measures taken. BTW...would churches like say La Madeline be forbidden to advertise concerts?

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  16. I agree that the car is cute and the ad is clever.

    I must admit that advertising in Paris is done with much more style and creativity than here in the USA and I always liked the "revolving" posters of advertisements in Paris[sort of condenses them]however..I hope they don't reduce too much of the advertising in the Metro as I actually look forward to the posters on those long hikes dans les correspondances!! The only place I ever saw an advertisement for a bag of "mâche"!! LOL!!

    Advertising in America is like brainwashing..it is everywhere, and has become really annoying; just look at the Internet for crying out loud!! Television programs are just filler between ads!! Blech!! Oooops...gotta go..someone just kicked my soapbox!! LOL!! Joyeux Noel!!!

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  17. Back again...did you notice the lower right hand corner??

    "réinventer la ville"...mais oui...by getting rid of advertising!! LOL!!

    Why more taxes Eric?? Do the ad companies pay taxes for the space? You realize one of the biggest ad companies in the US is French..right?

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  18. Quick answer - I HAVE to go to bed! - Tonton: More taxes because the town rents its advertising space so anytime someone advertises, a certain percentage goes into the city hall budget.

    If lees money goes in this way, well, they will have to either spend less (ah ah!!) or raise more taxes...

    I did not know the biggest French company in the US is French. Who is it?? Publicis ?

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  19. Ideas to save Parisian taxpayers' money. Dim the lights on the Eiffel Tower? just kidding ... no really!

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  20. By the way, speaking of dimming the lights, is it my imagination or is the Louvre's pyramid a little less bright these days? I could have sworn it used to be brighter at night than it is these days...

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  21. To Lynn,
    Because it is really not that moral to advertise in front of schools... Can children be considered as aware consumers? As a teacher, I doubt it... Not to mention that some ads are sometimes disturbing in front of schools (i.e. MacDonald's...).

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  22. Mme Benaut said...

    But Mmm, creative work belongs precisely NOT in the art gallery, but out in the streets as part of people's lives. Whether advertising fills that role is open to debate.

    ps Moscow might have been grey, and probably still is, but Havana is not.

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  23. As a guy who owns his own ad agency, I'm all for it!

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  24. Actually, the city isn't losing money on this. The company that operates velib (I am pretty sure that it is JCDecaux) negotiated with Paris and in return for installing and operating the velib system, they received rights to all city of paris advertising sites for the next 10 years. The whole thing is so sketchy...

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  25. Haha, perfect, can't wait till there is less advertising.. recently I saw a flickrset about NO ADs in Sao Paolo:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonydemarco/sets/72157600075508212

    Let's see, what it'll look like in Paris :)

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