European City To Become Ad-Free
- 10 years ago
The French city of Grenoble plans to remove all billboards and advertisements from its streets beginning in January.
Billboards and other types of advertisements are part of almost every city's landscape, but come January one European locale will no longer be among them.
Grenoble, France will become the first city on its continent to completely ban all street ads.
Beginning in January 2015, 326 signs will be removed from public spaces. This task is expected to be completed by April.
The ban is part of a promise made during the election campaign of mayor Eric Piolle.
His office released a statement saying, "The municipality is taking the choice of freeing public space in Grenoble from advertising to develop areas for public expression."
All the newly blank commercial space will be replaced with trees or given to local groups free of charge so they can make public announcements.
The lack of ads will mean a loss of revenue for a city, which usually garners almost $750,000 annually. That profit is projected to drop to around $190,000.
A few smaller towns on in Europe have rid themselves of ads as well, but this is the first urban area to do so.
Billboards and other types of advertisements are part of almost every city's landscape, but come January one European locale will no longer be among them.
Grenoble, France will become the first city on its continent to completely ban all street ads.
Beginning in January 2015, 326 signs will be removed from public spaces. This task is expected to be completed by April.
The ban is part of a promise made during the election campaign of mayor Eric Piolle.
His office released a statement saying, "The municipality is taking the choice of freeing public space in Grenoble from advertising to develop areas for public expression."
All the newly blank commercial space will be replaced with trees or given to local groups free of charge so they can make public announcements.
The lack of ads will mean a loss of revenue for a city, which usually garners almost $750,000 annually. That profit is projected to drop to around $190,000.
A few smaller towns on in Europe have rid themselves of ads as well, but this is the first urban area to do so.