Bloomberg Wants to Ban, Restrict Outdoor Advertising

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While it won't effect Times Square, New York's Bloomberg administration is moving forward with efforts to enforce Local Law 31, a 2005 law that restricts certain types of outdoor advertising structures which were built after 1979. The City wants to dismantle 50 to 60 percent of the boards, reduce the size of others and place restrictions on those that remain. Reacting to the move, OTR Media Group President and CEO Ari Noe said, "Banning billboards and scaffolding signage will cause a significant financial loss for many different sectors of the economy - property owners, local businesses, union labor, advertising agencies and advertisers," Particularly hurt by this move would be stores who are undergoing renovation and who advertise on the scaffolding to make sure people know they are still open for business. While it might be everywhere, outdoor advertising to us is the least invasive and annoying ad medium of them all. They just sit there, You don't have to look at them and they don't interrupt programming as literally every other form of advertising does. isn't there still crime here in the city that needs to be dealt with instead of this minutia?

Written by Steve Hall    Comments (5)     File: Bad, Opinion, Outdoor, Policy     Sep- 8-06  
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Comments

This is a shame! NYC is the mecca for out-of-home advertising. Not only would this be a huge loss for advertisers and their agency's it would change the face of the city.
One of the things I love to do while in NYC is stand on the street corners and soak in the advertising. Some of the best creative in the world is featured in this city.

Posted by: Lisa Low on September 8, 2006 02:16 PM

I think billboards are fantastic in New York City and I love the skyline with them a part of it. I think they're as much a part of the skyline as skyscrapers and I think trying to restrict them is a bad idea. Didn't the city award a contract for new bus shelters recently? How does that play into what the city says about billboards being unsightly?

Posted by: Mark O'Brien on September 8, 2006 02:47 PM

I think the two points made above are very good!!
Here in the wild west Omaha's Planning Department kids have all but quit allowing new electronic signs to be put up (not so in some of the area smaller cities.) There too is at least some talk of removing all billboards from the metro interstate system. It will be interesting to watch.

Posted by: roy on September 8, 2006 06:11 PM

As a New Yorker, and one ho has been here for 30 years, I have to say that there is ads EVERYWHERE and it disturbs me. The city used to be a city, but now it's turned into a crappy ad space for just about everything. They've gone so far as to COVER APARTMENT WINDOWS with ads. Can you image paying $2000 a month fo a box and they cover your window with a billboard ad? GO BLOOMIE.

Posted by: James Stockwell on September 8, 2006 11:51 PM

Who cares? Does anybody pay attention to those ads anyway? If you're a tourist in Times Square, or if you forgot something to read in the subway and have nothing to look at but ambulance chaser ads, perhaps.

Posted by: New York Post on September 12, 2006 12:09 PM

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