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Advertisements could Damage the City Environment

Diego Neyra

International Language Academy of Canada

Freddie Najafi

June 06, 2020

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Advertisements could damage the city environment

Nobody can deny our society has needings and at the time of searching for information to buy

some products, advertisements are found that often help when making a purchase. The

announcements are necessary clearly, but on many occasions, they invade the urbanism of the streets,

many times they invade the beauty of the environment. To prevent large amounts of advertisements

being placed on the streets, governments must incorporate regulations.

Clearly, over the past 20 years, society has been increasingly involved in advertisements,

many times these ads annoy people because they make them feel overwhelmed. However, it is not

considered that this problem is because the ads are spoiling the beauty of the city and people do not

feel comfortable in it. Governments are also affected since to recover the streets, they are forced to

maintain them every month cleanly. According to the latest economic report from the economy

minister of Colombia, more than 20 million dollars has been spent on cleaning the streets, it is

notorious that the problem is not just for citizens.

A clear solution to this problem is to impose more tax on advertising companies for each ad

that is placed in the city, this will cause companies to drastically reduce the number of ads placed on

the streets. For example, in Hamburg, Germany an additional advertising tax of 13% has been

implemented for each advertisement placed, according to a study carried out, this measure reduced the

placement of advertisements by 75%. In addition, it also meant a reduction, by of governments, in the

maintenance of the streets. Of course, this tax money went directly to recovering the beauty of the

streets.

Second, new standards must be created for advertising companies, with the aim of reducing

the number of ads per street. These standards would indicate the maximum dimensions established for

each advertisement and it would also be controlled the maximum number of advertisements per street.

As it was done in Denmark, the Danish architects developed a norm that established the maximum

sizes of each advertisement and how many should go per street. These architects gave a perfect

solution to the streets of their country since with their point of view as urban planners they were able

to control the advertising market.

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Finally, the opinion of citizens must be considered to allow or not the inclusion of

advertisements on the streets, citizens decide whether or not to place advertisements on the streets. In

the end, if the ads are not read there is no point in placing them disturbing the beauty of the city. In a

city in Mexico, this was done through surveys carried out by the advertising companies themselves,

the response was clear and the companies decided to look for another method of advertising that was

through the internet and social networks, they consider it less invasive.

As has been seen in the previous paragraphs, advertisements spoil the beauty of the city and

there are correct ways to reduce them. If these measures are required, less publicity can be seen on the

streets and there will be a better environment for citizens, everything is in the hands of the

corresponding legislation.