Road warriors who arrive in São Paulo after whisking their ways through Hong Kong, Tokyo and New York might get the feeling that something is missing. How about 15,000 billboards? and 300,000 oversized storefront signs? Under a 2007 law, the former were banned and the latter shrunk. This is the story of the Blank Space, partly based on our interview soon after the law took effect with Mayor Gilberto Kassab. In 2009, City Hall announced that it would sell concessions for ad space at the sundry bus stops and public clocks that dot the city. The municipality is expected to rake in R$2.4 billion for the concessions, which were to be awarded for 16-20 years. If you plan to visit Brazil’s biggest and most important city, check out our São Paulo Travel Guide.
It can be hard to shut Homer Simpson up, but São Paulo Mayor Gilberto Kassab did it in 2007. Brazil’s Gol Airlines and Fox Films decked out the fuselage of a Boeing 737 with Homer adhesives to promote The Simpsons Movie. But since the plane was scheduled to fly over municipal airspace, City Hall nixed the campaign under its Clean City law that bans outdoor advertising and severely limits storefront signs. As a result, the airspace above São Paulo was declared a Homer-free zone.
In fact, much of this teeming metropolis of 11 million people is now ad-free. Implemented gradually over the course of 2007, the Clean City law targets almost all forms of external advertising, including ads on planes and blimps as well as those adorning the 12,000 legally-registered billboards and untold thousands of unregistered placards that dotted the city. The removal of what the Mayor Kassab called “visual pollution” has exposed both the beauty and beastliness of Brazil’s bustling business capital. For the first time in decades, the ornate facades of old downtown buildings have been revealed in all their glory; on the other hand, the slums, or favelas, that line the expressways are no longer hidden behind gaudy billboards.
Paulistanos, as natives of São Paulo are known, seem to like what they are seeing - or not seeing, as the case may be. Polls taken in 2007 showed that 73% approved of the law, and 54% thought the city is a better place for it. Even many merchants and executives who were forced to change the layout of their storefronts came to endorse the overall effect. “The visual clean-up of the urban environment has contributed to the well-being of residents,” said Antônio Freitas, general director of Drogasil, a pharmacy chain that revamped all the signs adorning its establishments. Kalle Lasn, editor-in-chief of Adbusters, the Canadian-based anti-advertising magazine, hailed the law as “a seminal phenomenon,” expressing hope that it could become “a catalyst in a backlash that may lead somewhere.” “Time has shown that the city wanted this law,” Mayor Kassab beamed.
Back in 2007, Kassab’s rhetoric led some opponents of outdoor advertising to “cantar vitória antes da hora” – to celebrate before the final gun. They weren’t listening. Kassab talked openly about reintroducing public advertising on municipally-owned structures like public clocks and bus stops. “I’m not against advertising,” he said. “I’m in favor of it. I’m just against all this disgusting paraphernalia. There will be a second stage when the prices for outdoor advertising will be very high. We’ll be able to generate revenues.” The Mayor also appeared little inclined to allow the city to lose the frenetic energy that compels Brazilians compare it to New York: “We’ll have in São Paulo some areas along the lines of Times Square.” The cynical would argue that he was eliminating the competition before cornering the market.
São Paulo already had fairly stringent regulations on outdoor advertising and signage before the Clean City Law, but they were rarely enforced. Instead of sending out the sign cops, Kassab passed a new law. The effect was dramatic. Many billboards were disassembled. Others sat vacant: though protected by court orders obtained by billboard owners, advertisers were unwilling to buck City Hall. Whole sides of downtown buildings near thoroughfares had been painted as lingerie ads. Even now they now sit starkly grey. Commercial districts once characterized by loud storefront signs have been cleaned out to reveal decaying facades. “Other attempts didn’t work,” said Hélio Silva, professor of communications and marketing at the Catholic University of São Paulo. “Sometimes, unfortunately, you have to go to extremes.”
Advertisers thought Kassab went too far. Their consensus argument had less to do with freedom of speech than with freedom to do business. “The Kassab law is unconstitutional,” said Raul Nogueira Filho, president of the Billboard Union, an association of billboard owners. “The federal constitution states that you cannot prohibit a legally registered company from operating.”
Like the Billboard Union, the U.S.-based multinational Clear Channel filed a lawsuit to overturn the Clean City law based on the economic freedom argument. Indeed, Clear Channel obtained an early court order that allowed it to continue operating its billboards, but that hasn’t done the company much good. “Most people have kept an arm’s length,” said Emilio Medina, president of the company’s Brazilian subsidiary. “Nobody dares to go up against the public power.” Leading billboard companies claim they have always favored more stringent control and the elimination of unregistered billboards. “We were one of the first companies to defend regulation,” said Medina. “Visual communication was abusive in São Paulo. Nobody wants excess, but nobody wants prohibition either.”
One individual who confronted the law head-on is New York-based Brazilian photographer and artist Vik Muniz. He returned to his hometown and threw up 10 artistic billboards around the city. “There are so many architectural gaffes of a galactic magnitude in São Paulo,” Muniz told Veja São Paulo, a local magazine. “To suppress the use of images is like trying to cure a cancer with a medicinal plaster.” The law also clamped down on São Paulo’s internationally renowned graffiti, including that of osgemeos and by sundry artists in the Vila Madalena neighborhood.
If some companies complained, others began to scramble for competitive advantage – often in unexpected places. Focused direct mail campaigns began to pick up, especially by smaller neighborhood merchants forced to reduce the size of their storefront signage, said Dieter Brandt, president of the local association for the printing supply industry. Potential renters began to contact real estate firms since they could no longer make out the phone numbers on the little “for rent” signs in front of buildings. The companies with the best brand recognition gain a competitive advantage over less well recognized firms; with signs harder to read, potential renters call the firms whose names they recall. Even paint manufacturers hope to sell more paint. “A city that looks better encourages people to take better care of their properties,” said Dilson Ferreira, executive-president of the Brazilian Association of Paint Manufacturers.
Companies like Drogasil and McDonald’s transformed the requirement to change their storefront signage into a competitive advantage, too. The Drogasil chain, which sported several different styles around town, took the opportunity to consolidate and modernize its brand image. The Brazilian operation of McDonald’s, which already had a corporate directive to demonstrate a more subtle image, incorporated the new restrictions into the overall redesign of their fast-food restaurants. “Before, the biggest signs won,” said Frank Siciliano, architect and partner in Todescan Siciliano Arquitetura, the company responsible for McDonald’s redesign in Brazil. “Now, the best signs win.”
São Paulo’s all out ban clearly makes City Hall’s job easier. Instead of having to analyze districts and neighborhoods and draw up appropriate zoning regulations, the mayor’s visual pollution police can follow simple rules to slap fines. The effect on many residential areas has been soothing, but at the same time citizens sometimes inadvertently drive right by the restaurant or shop they were looking for. And if city officials merely reinstate advertising under municipal control, the larger effect might be to merely transfer revenues from the private to the public sector. Such a move would put even a bigger dent in the city’s reputation and a bustling, business-friendly city.
