The most extreme example of this happened in 2006, when the mayor of Sao Paulo passed a ‘Clean City’  law to clean up the visual pollution caused by some 8,000 poster sites, many of which had been erected illegally.

Opinion, of course, was split down the middle. Some thought it was a ‘triumph of public interest over private…of aesthetics over ugliness…of cleanliness over trash.’ Others claimed the city looked ‘a sadder,duller place’ and that – in addition to being commercial – advertising is a form of entertainment which engages and informs.

Judge for yourself. Sao Paulo isn’t going to win many architectural prizes, so without the colour of advertising and neo signs, there is a ‘communist bloc’ feel about the skyline. To be fair, these pictures were taken before the job (the complete removal of the sites themselves) had been finished.

Nevertheless, I’m beginning to think London might benefit from a similar approach.

CAPITAL CAMPAIGNS

I picked up some interesting messages today, my first trip into town since before Christmas.

For example,  the Bakerloo entrance to the tube at Paddington Station. There are some large, landscape sites, all carrying posters for the animated feature ‘Waltz with Bashir’, proclaiming its opening – on 21 November. On either side, a portrait-format poster, showing the results of some market research by CBS (the site owners) proclaiming that 9/10 passengers like advertising.

Down the escalators,  the static paper ‘cards’ have been replaced by long rows of digital screens. Yesterday, they carried three messages, two of which were:

* Details of London Underground’s text messaging services to let passengers know about engineering works

* A CBS campaign about the benefits of advertising on digital panels on the Tube.

In other words, 66% of display time was taken by the two owners (Transport for London and CBS). Marshall McLuhan proven right again: the medium is the message.

Cross-track gallery sites (that’s the posters we mindlessly stare at while waiting for a train) are also being upgrades to animations. At Paddington and Oxford Circus, both were carrying messages from CBS about how great it is to advertise on cross-track gallery sites.

Do you see a theme beginning to emerge?

Obviously, the owners are terrified of ‘going dark’ (as West End theatres would say), so they try to maintain confidence with a sort of ‘meta-advertising, (metads?): advertising about advertising.

The third campaign on the escalator was for  Channel 4′s ‘Great British Food Fight’. Imagine the terror: travelling into London’s subterranean world, surrounded by multiple images of Gordon Ramsey. Like some post-modern entrance to Dante’s inferno.

The theme was continued on the platform by giant posters for Channel Five’s remake of ‘Minder’ starring Shane Ritchie as Archie Daley (sic – that is not a typing error; he’s Arthur’s nephew. I am not making this up.)

Interesting variations on the metad form: an advertisement to drive the viewer to another media to watch an advertisement.

IN THE TRENCHES

One of the reasons for my visit was a meeting with an executive who has worked in advertising sales for the past 25 years. He’s run teams for many of the major media brands, and knows the game inside-out.

“It’s a very sensitive market,” he told me. “The economy slides a couple of percentage points? Advertising drops exponentially, TV is down 25% year-on-year, commercial radio is down 35%”

Of course, it’s not all down to a slowing economy; new media has taken a sizeable share of the total pot. The most recent full report I can find is a 2007 US analysis from PWC, which shows total TV spend at $51bn,  newspapers at $48bn, radio a shade off $20bn and outdoor at $7bn.

In the 10 years you 2007, online spend rose from $1.9bn to $21.2bn.

(According two Channel 4′s CEO Andy Duncan, the UK market is in now worth $3bn, about the same as TV advertising. A report by ‘Efficient Frontier’ supports this, saying the Q4 2008 was up 14% year-on-year)

So, a major factor in the change to the capital’s visual communication is a shift in media and technology. It’s not just about a downturn; it’ss the way that we, the audience,  spend our time, where we direct our attention, and how we have become immune to certain forms of persuasion.

But there is no doubt that the ads currently running are signs of the times. And it looks as though the only thing that advertising has to sell is itself.