Next time you travel, whether it’s to work or to shop for your food, have a look around you. At the signs. Signage. There’s signs for petrol prices and big furniture warehouses. Billboards selling cars and insurance to match. On highways there’s signage telling us how far it is until we reach the next fast food stop and billboards reminding us of which brand of cola suits us best. Bus stops tell us how to get rid of back pain, train stations how to maintain erections and tram stops (Melbourne-centric) tell us which mobile phone company to utilise.
Public space is filled with advertising. It always has been. Always.
But now most local authorities ban the sale of cars on the roadside. Long gone are the days of putting your 17 year old shitbox on the footpath with a cardboard sign saying ‘$500 ONO.’ Local by-law officers where I live now levy fines towards people for sticky-taping garage sale signs to power poles or chalking their garage sale details on footpaths. Bill posters are also threatened with prosecution unless they get approval from their local council.
I know that in the inner northern suburbs of Melbourne (where I live) the above regulations exist.
If you have gotten this far in reading this post, please let me know what sort of regulations you HAVE to abide by if you want to advertise in your own neighbourhood . The only reason I’m posting this is that I find it hard to believe how much public space has been privatised.
we have pretty much the same rules here (here also being in victoria, albeit the other end) but no one ever enforces them.
“Public space is filled with advertising. It always has been. Always.”
Not true.
Carry on.
Well, I should have qualified that statement. I’m talking the last 70 years or so. I’ve been taking photos of all the remnants of old billboards/wall paintings around Melbourne. Ads for cobblers, tailors, dentists, pubs, provedores and stevedores. In the ‘olden days’ I’m informed that small business owners just painted their sign on a prominent wall. I’m not saying that big corporations should be able to advertise anywhere they want, just that individuals should be able to use their public space as they see fit and not be expected to get their affairs ‘approved’ by a body.