Billboards Citichat 2 February 2007

CITICHAT 4/2007- 2 February 2007


Gautrain ‘Big Bang’

Sunday will see a physical start made on the Gautrain Inner City station when four buildings in the block bounded by Smit, Wolmarans, Eloff and Joubert are imploded at 09h00. Should be ‘quite a blast’!

Billboards – who benefits!



Three positive personal experiences related to billboards.



1. On a visit to Rome some years back, I noticed a number of historic buildings being restored/renovated. Each was totally enclosed by builder’s hoardings in the form of what we today call ‘wraps’ on which were imprinted an image of what the building would like when completed – no advertising, not even of the builder’s name! Great benefit to the city – not having an untidy building site; great benefit to citizens and tourists – being advised of what could be expected as an outcome of what was happening behind the wrap.

2. Traveling on a train between Amsterdam and Rotterdam, I passed a very large modern glass skyscraper, probably 40 to 50 storeys in height, which had been completely wrapped. The giant image it carried was of a member of the Dutch soccer team ‘smashing through the wrapping’ as he appeared to come towards the viewer dribbling a football. Later, when I went to have a look at the building in more detail, I found that the back of the building contained the rear view of the same figure, going away from the viewer. It was really exciting because it was huge and incredibly vibrant and just pulsating with energy and it related to a current major event. It was almost insignificantly branded by Nike and was a short term wrap related to Euro 2000.

3. Not a once off experience, but one I continually enjoy every time I’m in New York, is a visit to Times Square. This space, not that large horizontally by ‘Square’ standards – it stretches from West 42nd to West 47th Streets at the junction of Broadway and 7th Avenue – has achieved international iconic world landmark status principally because of its gigantic and often animated billboard advertisements. In fact the first billboard advertisement appeared there way back in 1904. At that time, Times Square was growing into something of a cultural hub for the city and, by the ‘30s, was full of theatres, music halls and upmarket hotels.



When I first visited Time Square in 1982 it had declined dramatically into a seedy and quite dangerous area. Although there were still some theatres, the area was better known for its sleazy adult shops, ’peep shows’ and strip bars. Its iconic image was decidedly negative - a symbol of what was worst in New York. But, later in the ‘80s, that started to change again under a development plan conceived under Mayors Ed Koch and David Dinkins and led largely by the newly established Business Improvement District or BID (what we would call a CID). Sex and porn shops were closed whilst increased security drove out the “squeegee men”, hucksters and pimps and more tourist friendly establishments started to open. In 1990, renovations to six of the nine historic theatres on 42nd Street were started.



A zoning ordinance was passed that required every building in Times Square to have illuminated billboards above 1st floor level and the Square regained its iconic landmark status. The NASDAQ sign at 4 Times Square cost $37 million to build in 2000 and the 40 metre high sign brings in over $2 million per annum in space rental income. The giant 16-storey by 20 metre wide Hershey Bar ad (they call them ‘spectaculars”) has 34 props, 4 steam engines, 4000 fixed and 30 programmable lights and 56 giant neon letters.



Today Times Square often acts as the backdrop or location for films (Vanilla Sky, Spider-Man, King Kong etc.) It also is the shooting location for various TV shows and the background to numerous video games.



Lately, advertisers have discovered that technology has provided a new ‘cutting edge’ to spread their messages via the internet. Events held in Times Square are videoed by thousands of people and then put on web pages, blogs, etc and are seen by millions. General Electric rented nine digital billboards in Times Square on which they displayed pictures of the people passing the site. Those people in turn took photos and videos of their images and soon these were circulating the world on line. The very latest technology, heaven forbid, allows advertisers to beam messages and adverts to the cell-phones of people passing by. In a two week trial recently in London, the billboard detected 87 000passers by over a two week period of which 17% were prepared to download song clips from a new music album that was being promoted in this way!



Beneficiaries are clearly the advertising companies and the property owners but also the millions of tourists who see Times Square as synonymous with America. Yes, it is blatantly commercial – no one apologises for that fact – and it is one of the few places in the world that has laws requiring billboards to be erected - but it is confined to that area.



Let’s come home. In Rosebank, recently on a prominent site, the builder’s hoarding reflected not what was going to be built, but a dozen nubile young ladies clad in their underwear, the focus of the ad, each with a sexy caption. The same style of ad appears currently on a building site in Sandton. Sandton Drive features a variety of ads promoting competing strip clubs. I’m not a Mother Grundy and I realise that our Constitution doesn’t allow any discrimination, but what about just plain old good civic taste and values!



Now drive south down Bertha Street, the continuation of Jan Smuts, through Braamfontein, and what do you see? On the left a huge, 6/7 storeys, oil company ad displaying engine valves, not the most uplifting of signs (which some may at least attribute to the bra ads in Rosebank!) - on the right, an empty, vacant shell of a building, completely wrapped. Bear left and go over Queen Elizabeth Bridge and you are immediately accosted visually by dozens of billboards, some on roofs, some on the sides of buildings, some on either side of the bridge. Your senses are assaulted – there is clearly no standard set for type of message, number and size of signs. There are old signs that are in a disgusting state and there are some billboard structures that are empty as marketing companies look for new advertisers. We have indiscriminately cluttered our city environment and we assault the sensibility of our citizens. Am I advocating a ban on billboards? No, not at all – I am however suggesting that an intelligent approach would lead to more judicious use of our public space which, after all, belongs to citizens and not to the local authority. The Council, in my view, have an obligation to ensure that the message and numbers of adverting boards is within reason. In 2000, the rooftops in Athens had been allowed to grow so thick with billboards that one couldn’t even view the architecture for which the city is famous. Their Council embarked on a four year project to demolish the majority of the rooftop billboards to beautify the city for the hordes of visitors expected for the Olympics. Surely their first responsibility was to their citizens who had to endure the visual pollution of their beautiful city for years. Turns out that most of adverts were in fact illegal, a fact ignored by the city authorities for years.



So, who really benefits from our billboards? Firstly, the property owners. As is the case with the building to the west of the Braamfontein entrance to the Nelson Mandela Bridge, income from advertising clearly outweighs the cost of restoring the building and letting it! So, why bother? I understand that some of these building wraps bring in excess of R100 000 -00 per month for the property owner. If the building was let it would bring people and economy to the area not just to a single pocket! Then, the advertiser clearly benefits or why advertise? Fair enough, they are paying for that right but let’s at least be a little bit discerning about what and how much should be allowed. And of course the marketing company makes big bucks and the city also has an income. I don’t believe the public benefits except when the billboards are used non-commercially as we did some years go in the Joburg Art City project. That great billboard “Joburg Man” in Main Street is still admired by many.



Where does the charge made by the city go to? Some years ago the city approved that a percentage (I think it was 15%) of all outdoor advertising income generated within the inner city would go into an inner city fund. It never happened so where does the money go? It appears to be absorbed into general income which means that no one has any idea what it is used for. Not transparent, not accountable for and not acceptable! If we are to have our senses assailed in this manner, then at least let us see that the money is put to good effect.



One approach that comes immediately to mind is improving the public environment through two ways. Firstly, by providing additional funding for public art. I say ‘additional’ because I know that the city has recently approved a proposal that funds from all capital expenditure on major projects will be made available for this. But additional funding from outdoor advertising would really enable us to catch up our generally barren past and empower some great and significant public art-works as one experiences in so many world-class cities.



Secondly, please could we fund a small group of workers to clear our pavements and road gutters of weeds –no department or utility appears to have this responsibility. Driven up Rissik Street lately? If you have you cannot help but to have seen the disgusting state of the stretch parallel to Park Station. I’d always understood that Rissik Street was supposed to be the ceremonial street of the city – in my wildest imagining I couldn’t perceive what kind of ceremonies someone has in mind. The flower boxes, if they are not being used for refuse, display dead plants, and their sides are covered in graffiti. Weeds sprout from the pavements and the road gutters. This stretch is a disgrace and whoever is responsible for keeping this area up to scratch should be severely penalized. That’s why a dedicated team paid for out of a special budget would be a godsend. And it would provide employment for a group – maybe the homeless who sleep outside the Kazerne parking garages on the pavement could thus be funded sufficiently to find a roof over their heads.



In some interviewing of developers that I am doing at the moment I ask what incentives they would like to see introduced. The 100% response to date has been, forget incentives, just get the city to do what it is supposed to do and you’ll create an environment that will promote investment. Refuse removal and public environment maintenance are high on their list of what the city is not doing.



Enough! Have, a great weekend, regards, neil.