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Afternoon everyone, the topic of this debate is that billboards and street advertising are visual pollution and as the affirmative side agree with this statement. Street advertising is the broad terminology used for advertisements that are located on billboards, bus benches or the sides of transport. Visual pollution is an aesthetic issue referring to unattractive visual elements of a landscape, or anything that a person doesn’t feel comfortable to look at for example a billboard.
I believe that street advertising is visual pollution and that it should be banned in cities for a number of reasons. Firstly, businesses don’t really need billboards to boost sales. Secondly, digital billboards are a hazard to drivers and lastly, Finally they clutter and ruin the environment. In 2006 Brazier’s largest city San Paolo passed a “clean city” law which caused for the removal for all forms of outdoor advertising in the city. The governments goals were to reduce visual pollution, improve the quality of life for their citizens and prevent accidents on the roads.
It has also encouraged other cities to follow suit, in 2007 Buenos Aries removed 40 thousand billboards in the metro area alone, and was only 60 percent of the billboards displayed. Many companies fought to get this bill overturned but the government held strong. The negative side might try to tell you that by removing these billboards businesses would suffer greatly but this is in reality incorrect. A survey this year of citizens in San Paolo said that the clean city law has actually been beneficial to businesses, both big and small.
It has forced them to think outside the box, to reevaluate and improve, and they are finding that strategies that were previously unconventional are working amazingly well especially online advertising. The new technology for companies is the digital billboard, where every 5 seconds or so the billboard changed an a new advert pops up. The only great thing about that which can see is that companies that own that billboard can make more money by selling the space to multiple advertisers.
The government has already made rules about us not being able to use our mobile phones or pods whilst driving to help us focus on the road, but what do you do when the road becomes a distraction in itself? No matter how hard you try a you cannot help but be distracted by a this flashing light. So, what I am trying to say is that billboards are distractions, especially for men. According to car accident advice line in Britain 15,000 accidents were caused by people getting distracted simply because of the scenery, and billboards aren’t helping.
Take truck driver Harry Dourly for example, he managed to keep concentration whilst driving by the wonder-bra billboard but it was the next one which caused him to crash his 7. 5 tone lorry causing serious injuries to himself and three other people and are you wondering which ad caused the distraction. It was for toothpaste, so pretty much any billboard can be a distraction on the roads. Finally billboards are eyesores which ruin the landscape. Buildings especially ones that are heritage listed or of particular prominence deserve to be seen by the public and not cluttered with propaganda.
In Jungian in Japan along their main highways their are 7,000 billboards. Going back in San Paulo before the ban you couldn’t even recognizes the architecture of the old buildings because of billboards, logos and propaganda that covered almost every available wall say one citizen. The billboards were actually being used as block out to cover some of the shantytown in the are, now that they have been removed the government has focused more of their money on building these areas and improving the living standards of those people now that they have been brought into plain sight.
In conclusion, as the affirmative side I believe that billboards are visual pollution and they should be banned in cities, for many reasons. Billboards are hazardous to drivers and are causing more accidents on the roads every year, especially the digital billboards. They are eyesore and if not heavily restricted they are erected all over the town, many illegally and finally businesses don’t really need billboards to boost sales since other methods have been proven to be just as effective.