São Paulo No Logo

27 Aug 2007 Category: Architecture, Features, Photography, Worldwide

São Paulo No Logo

A stripped billboard serves as a reminder of former times of ubiquitous advertisments. São Paolo 2007. Photo by Tony de Marco.

At the beginning of this year, a new law in São Paulo, Brazil, drastically changed the cityscape practically overnight: No advertisements, no billboards, no posters anywhere! In an attempt to clean up urban surfaces and crack down on illegal sticker action, everything had to come down. Though not the first city to introduce such drastic measures, it nevertheless is a beautiful sight for contemplating our beloved consumeristic habits. In the last couple of months, photographer Tony de Marco has documented the whole process of tearing down the billboards with his São Paulo No Logo collection on Flickr. PingMag went with him on a visual journey through his advertisement-free cityscape and let Flickr users give their comments…

Written by Verena


A stripped-down billboard in Sao Paolo. Next, the frame will be torn down. Photo by Tony de Marco.

Definitely no logo. Might be a nice field trip for Naomi Klein. Photo by Tony de Marco.

“What we are aiming for is a complete change of culture,” said City Council President Roberto Tripoli to the Herald Tribune late last year. So, all billboards, as well as other forms of distribution, have to come down eventually. Duh, no fliers anymore! No more visual pollution after peeling off the outer surface, unveiling a vast underlying layer of the city. Was that so-called “change of culture” meant to be a not so subtle hint towards a radical visual purism? Or just a practical need to improve the quality of life for São Paulo’s inhabitants?

Relief for sore eyes? Photo by Tony de Marco.

New urban aesthetics? Photo by Tony de Marco.

In a vivid description of this visual revolution, Brazilian reporter Vinicius Galvao told On The Media about driving through the altered landscape this spring:
“São Paulo’s a very vertical city. That makes it very frenetic. You couldn’t even realise the architecture of the old buildings, because all the buildings, all the houses were just covered with billboards and logos and propaganda. And there was no criteria.” No visual standardisation so to speak…


Dismantling a billboard… Photo by Tony de Marco.

…and off it comes! Photo by Tony de Marco.

Space for fresh paint… Photo by Tony de Marco.

…after the displays are down. Photo by Tony de Marco.

But whereas residents once had gigantic ads as orientation to find their way through the urban jungle, people now have to find something else as their personal signage. Galvao said:
“It’s weird, because you get lost, so you don’t have any references any more. That’s what I realised as a citizen. My reference was a big Panasonic billboard. But now my reference is art deco building that was once covered with this Panasonic. So you start getting new references in the city. The city’s got now new language, a new identity.”
Okay, we wouldn’t go so far to praise the dawn of unified urban landscape. And the companies acted quickly anyway: “…big banks, like Citibank, and big stores, like Dolce & Gabbana, started painting themselves with very strong colours, like yellow, red, deep blue, and creating other visual patterns to associate the brand to that pattern or to that colour,” Galvao reported.

Shops quickly painted their house segments in one colour to give people a visual hint of their whereabouts. Photo by Tony de Marco.

Now, we wanted to know from Tony de Marco how the São Paulo folks deal with their newly found freedom and whether they still like it after these last eight months:

“People are surprised because the ban is still working against economic power. The approval is rising,” says Tony, who likes the landscape much more now.


No logo as practised in Memphis. Camera phone pic by Lord of the Flies.

How does he as photographer feel when walking through a cityscape emptied of visual distractions then?

“I feel good. No words in every place, no giant disgusting pictures on the wall, no trash fonts (like Arial) polluting my eyes. When I go to another Brazilian city everything looks ugly. It’s all about visual pollution,” says Tony de Marco.

Other cities seem to have been implimenting “no logo” campaigns, such as in Memphis, as Flickr user Lord of the Flies shows with his camera phone pic.

What do people think when they see these images online? See some user statements from Tony’s São Paulo No Logo set on Flickr:

Just the framework is left… Photo by Tony de Marco.

This is surreal.
Tom Olliver

beauty is a blank billboard
datakid musicman

everything looks strangely…real. as if a simulacrum had been wiped away.
snailsaremyfriends

these are like ghosts you are happy to see
ratiofarm

Interesting style mix on three spatial levels. Photo by Tony de Marco.

It’s kind of a bummer when the most eerie looking thing I’ve seen in a while is how the world should be anyway
charge

I’d love to see art put into these frames…
Kabren


Vast surfaces, post-Soviet style? Photo by Tony de Marco.

This is Tony’s favourite image: “I love the contrast between natural and artificial forms.” Photo by Tony de Marco.

The skeletons of capitalism are showing!
robin746

The lack of visual clutter is refreshing.
zenlibra

It’s positively Soviet in lack of “visual clutter”.
rdouglaswright

Making way for new perspectives… Photo by Tony de Marco.

All of this feels awfully conservative. The conceptual edge of advertising is interesting. This is not to say having a city without advertising is not interesting though I have room for both aesthetics to exist. Conceptual Art partially exists because of advertising.
Progress or human growth or evolution whatever you call it (for some demise) it natural.
Artificialone

What is going to happen to all the people whose livelihood rely on advertising…
yacoza


Nice sight against the Brazilian sky… Photo by Tony de Marco.

… but how do all the painters make a living now? Photo by Tony de Marco.

Looks like North Korea. and who the hell wants to live in North Korea? Not me.
muaddib420

Muaddib: unless you suffer from “horror vacui”, you don’t know how is to live under strenuous, overwhelming and rapacious visual pollution. I love life in São Paulo now…
Kuja

Lonely skeleton, kind of romantic… Photo by Tony de Marco.

The removal of all the ads shows how dirty the city is. At least the ads add color.
Frostfox

soo, graffiti is ok but ads aren’t? How long till advertisers just start using spraypaint…
chrisfurniss

I love seeing the end of advertising.
Lord of the Flies

Now, want to get some street atmo? There is a nice spot for SkyMovies using footage of São Paulo streets!

54 Comments

  1. Commendable of the city council to forgo ad-permit revenues for a better quality of life for the people of São Paulo. Would be great if there were pictures of the city before the change to compare with.

    Posted by: gada on August 27th, 2007 at 7:42 pm

  2. Does this include removing company names from their buildings? Seems a bit too drastic, imho.

    Posted by: Caesar Tjalbo on August 27th, 2007 at 8:54 pm

  3. For me the most interesting thing is trying to imagine this applied to other cities. No Logo Tokyo? Extremely hard to picture.

    Posted by: Chris on August 27th, 2007 at 9:15 pm

  4. Wow that is so surreal.

    Posted by: vaneea on August 27th, 2007 at 9:32 pm

  5. I want to see no-logo Bangkok too.

    Posted by: puri on August 27th, 2007 at 9:57 pm

  6. I live in sao paulo. And I completely aprove this new law, the city was dirty with all the visual polution (like someone said, if ALL the adds were a nice piece of art, it wouldn’t be a problem) The law doesn’t include removing company names, but they have to readapt the logos and company name to 1/4 of the building front width. In the begining we tought about the related jobs, but there are OTHER midias to be explore. Sao Paulo is a much better place now.

    Posted by: Finor on August 28th, 2007 at 12:28 am

  7. [...] Contact me at tony (at) nascentideas.com No Logo Sao Paulo Monday August 27th 2007, 4:47 pm Filed under: Property, Street Art, Pop Culture, Photography, Design, Inspiration These photos have been everywhere and by now I think most everybody knows the story behind Sao Paulo’s recent decision to remove all advertising from their city but PingMag has a nice little feature where they’ve gone more in depth into the photos with the man who took them. Take a look here. [...]

    Posted by: No Logo Sao Paulo « Nascent Ideas on August 28th, 2007 at 12:47 am

  8. no logo montreal would be great. too much badly designed logos, ads, posters around here. it’s a shame.

    Posted by: francis.t on August 28th, 2007 at 1:21 am

  9. the entire Canada got badly designed logos, ads etc, and Montreal is the better one.

    Posted by: Anonymous on August 28th, 2007 at 4:02 am

  10. I love ‘Logo-cities’.
    I know what it feels to live in a small ‘non visually poluted’ landscape, and i can tell you, it may became so fkn boring… Nothing like the beauty in the discovering of a city through its multiple colorfull layers..

    Posted by: b. on August 28th, 2007 at 4:41 am

  11. yes, well, I live in São Paulo and I love this change of scenario. The city looks a lot cleaner to me, and it’s not like we can’t see any ads at all now. Some have desappeared, but others are just smaller and prettier.

    Posted by: Nana on August 28th, 2007 at 4:51 am

  12. I REALLY want to visit sao paulo now!

    Posted by: Badger on August 28th, 2007 at 5:34 am

  13. [...] berawal ketika membaca tulisan terbaru Pinkmag yang menulis Sao Paulo No Logo. Judul ini diambil dari koleksi foto2 Tony de Marco di Flickr [...]

    Posted by: Kota Bersih: Kota Tanpa Iklan? « A SUNNY DAY on August 28th, 2007 at 5:54 am

  14. I can see the reasons for the subtly cynical hints from the writer of this article but it almost sounds like he or she actually preferred life before popup blockers.

    Posted by: m canario on August 28th, 2007 at 6:04 am

  15. nice story ne~

    Posted by: mexist on August 28th, 2007 at 6:39 am

  16. Hello again, Pingmag!
    This article surprised me!
    I was born in São Paulo and I always lived here.
    This was just ridiculous, really.
    It’s all confusing now. You walk by the streets and have no clue of what the stores sell or how they’re called.
    And yes, as Caesar Tjalbo asked, everything had to be removed, even the company names. Even my teacher had to remove the little sign that said “Japanese Classes” in the front of our classroom.
    It’s funny how big companies didn’t have to apply to this.
    Who says that this has helped the city has no idea of how hard it is to have a store here, work honestly and get any profit from it. Sales decreased and the city looks even more dirty.

    Posted by: Akai on August 28th, 2007 at 9:10 am

  17. That’s the first time i heard the words ‘Visual pollution’…interesting….
    sometimes there’s just too much of things and you need some “empty space” of mind..to clear all the confusion and chaotic….

    but what about the designers and design companies??? unemployment??? how about the economics??? hrmm……very critical case though…

    Posted by: evon on August 28th, 2007 at 10:29 am

  18. Kyoto next please!

    Posted by: camera-otoko on August 28th, 2007 at 10:44 am

  19. [...] get a law passed that bans billboards, signs, advertisements and posters anywhere in the city. (Link) I would have never dreamed it possible, but I’m thrilled to see that it’s [...]

    Posted by: Only Partially Insane » Imagine a world…with no billboards on August 28th, 2007 at 12:23 pm

  20. Not saying anything is still saying something. The idea of banning anything is ridiculous. People don’t want to not see anything at all forever. Everyone differs and time passes. While this is currently called cleanliness, in time, will be seen as an Orwellian, oppressive sterility. Very soviet. And it also does not make sense to leave the towers holding the billboards up. That seems to be more about making a statement than removing all statements.

    Posted by: destrado on August 28th, 2007 at 1:01 pm

  21. we will be all out of jobs, everyone just with there expensive Powerbook lol. Why don’t all so-called designer start making pretty attractive things

    Posted by: Anonymous on August 28th, 2007 at 1:34 pm

  22. If you’re lost, buy a map. Learn street names. Are you proud that you navigate by billboards?
    I agree though that small businesses will be hurt more.

    Posted by: Duy on August 28th, 2007 at 3:49 pm

  23. i’d like to see this in manila. billboards are crappy here.

    Posted by: aj on August 28th, 2007 at 4:43 pm

  24. Look like little shops keep their name on faces
    Nice Idea, french suburbs are really crappy with all these awfull and fluo signs, advertising selling too much polluating cars or crappy objects will sell less stupidity. They often make illegally too big advertising, but corruption in local govt don’t allow to remove them for people sanity and to keep landscape clean and beautifull. Withous all this crappy things population could have more time one usefull and beautifull things, think again (about art, landscapes, architecture, and simply think more than be invaded by false messages). The new challange for shops are more on shapes and color than on false words. Everything here looks very exciting. I would like to work on this king of stuff. This give me idea for my own website to gain in clarity and simplicity :)

    Thank you for this post (and your nice articles more generally, that are always really interesting).

    Posted by: Popolon on August 28th, 2007 at 6:56 pm

  25. they could make “no people”.
    the city would be much better

    Posted by: ton on August 28th, 2007 at 8:16 pm

  26. It is nearly impossible to imagine what Tokyo would look like if this were implemented here. There would be nothing left at all!

    Posted by: tokyostreet on August 28th, 2007 at 11:32 pm

  27. ads ads ads = m$ney m$ney yeah!

    Posted by: Anonymous on August 29th, 2007 at 2:48 am

  28. Hope they’ll get rid of those billboard skeletons in time as they look like post war remainings

    Posted by: GK on August 29th, 2007 at 3:42 am

  29. [...] city of São Paulo recently banned all forms of outdoor advertising. From PingMag: At the beginning of this year, a new law in São Paulo, Brazil, drastically changed the cityscape [...]

    Posted by: São Paulo Sem Logo | Artificially Important on August 29th, 2007 at 6:16 am

  30. Free(dom) of information act…?

    Government concerned about citizens life?
    RUN!!! RUUUUUN!!!

    From here:
    http://www.camara.sp.gov.br/centraldearquivos/homepage/Projeto%20Cidade%20Limpa%20DOC%2009-08-06.pdf
    with help of http://translate.google.com/
    I’ve gathered that basically they ordered removal of ads from all areas but they will allow ads on bus stops and other such places with designated add space. I wonder who those belong to?

    And from what I gathered you can still advertise cultural events and elections with posters only you have to remove them 30 days after (culture) and 15 days after the event (politics) .

    Posted by: denza on August 29th, 2007 at 6:40 am

  31. so sad with no logo, maybe just ppl all those graffitti ppl to jail, problem solve. anti-graffitti!

    Posted by: Anonymous on August 29th, 2007 at 9:13 am

  32. Wo, I’ve been taking pic’s of “No logo” signs in my neck of the woods(New Mexico) for some time now. This blows me away because I’m taking the pic’s for similar reasons. It’s not so drastic as San Paulo,actually it’s like a game because you have to hunt for them. As well they stand out more to me because of so much “visual pollution” around them. Their like gems to me. Ive got one on my blog at asoboo, from a series of night shots. I’ve also published a book with many.Beautiful stuff

    Posted by: eppbot on August 29th, 2007 at 10:36 am

  33. Living in a big city, sometimes I wish for a signless landscape, but its hard to imagine when its on every window, wall, tshirt etc. Somedays I feel bombarded with advertising. This is a great insight. Hasn’t Cuba had a similar policy forever?

    Posted by: yani on August 29th, 2007 at 2:39 pm

  34. I hope all those empty space can be filled with somthing like art..imagine huge billboards filled with beautiful pieces of art all over the city, that would be amazing

    Posted by: megan on August 30th, 2007 at 12:14 am

  35. Sorry, Brazillians are stuggling strough live and killing each other because of poverty. Do these politicians have nothing better to do than wasting time on such ridiculous nonsense? By the way, I am half Brazillian …

    Posted by: Stefan on August 30th, 2007 at 1:41 am

  36. it’s been a while since i saw so much bullshit put together. Banning ads is arrogant, autocratic ans stupid. Besides, who the hell wants to have grey and white walls as a landscape?

    Hopefully the people in Sao Paulo will come to their senses and ads will flood the city again

    Posted by: Alan on August 31st, 2007 at 2:54 am

  37. Might not sound ridiculous for someone who has experienced more than just ‘half’ of the conflicts that lie beneath the surface of our cities’ landscapes. Beyond the aesthetic problem, I think it is important to return the city to those who inhabit it, providing strategies for a more relevant, coherent and productive reintegration of city fragments.

    http://www.favelapainting.com/

    Maybe this is just as arrogant as pretending to impose a unique way of thinking cities but I am sure it has a wider perspective than that of your car’s rear-view mirror.

    Oh, but now I can see it clearly! There is no solution because the problem is ‘their’ poverty… Ok so then lets leave the billboards untouched, at least ‘they’ will have a visual reference when they forget what true wealth looks like.

    PS. Sarcasm aside, I would love to see this happening in Caracas.

    Posted by: Rey~ on August 31st, 2007 at 4:54 pm

  38. Simillar rule was passed this past month in Tehran, Iran. No more ads on buses in Tehran. Makes me glad.

    Posted by: behrouz H on August 31st, 2007 at 6:51 pm

  39. [...] άρθρα θα βρείς στο Adbusters, PingMag, στο BusinessWeek, στη Herald Tribune, No Comments, Comment or [...]

    Posted by: São Paulo No Logo on September 1st, 2007 at 8:15 pm

  40. I am form Sao Paulo too, and the city is slowly becoming beautiful. the thing is that all the logos are still out there, but now there is a size limitation for logo and ads, and so, all stores are painting their buildings… the bakery near my house looks much better now!

    Posted by: Flavio on September 5th, 2007 at 11:30 am

  41. Guys, guys… In Poland after communism fall (80’s-90’s) we had exactly that situation - no graphic on the streets. When I was a kid I remember one and only colour sign in city center. I loved it. Now it’s like everywhere. But then the city was also ugly. Visual information is a part of city landscape - it helps citizens. Agree for removing billboards. But not for logos.

    Posted by: michal on September 6th, 2007 at 6:48 pm

  42. Great, except the title — it’s not about logo (identity), it’s about advertising (sales).

    Posted by: Kit on September 6th, 2007 at 9:22 pm

  43. [...] reading here from [...]

    Posted by: tres33 » São Paolo No Logo on September 9th, 2007 at 11:39 pm

  44. hey this is the shit i cant wait to go there and look at all the art cuz there is nothing better than a bunch of hungry people with pens…
    xox
    rr
    stat7

    Posted by: rachel on September 11th, 2007 at 7:15 am

  45. The city of SP is now just the city of SP. Just how it’s supposed to be.

    Some places got better, some places got worst. At least now we know exactly where we live and where we should take an extra care.

    People loved the new law, and those who says they’re loosing clients… that’s bullshit!

    Posted by: Psycho on October 8th, 2007 at 7:49 am

  46. Wow. I thought it was neat to see advertisements, but if it’s a real problem, then I wouldn’t mind seeing art up in the frames instead. I’ve always wanted to go to Sao Paulo, it looks like a city full of wonder and life.

    Posted by: Borsch on October 14th, 2007 at 5:25 am

  47. grafitti is also being chased by the major here… they painting some walls grey.

    Posted by: leo cavallini on November 16th, 2007 at 1:10 pm

  48. seems so colorful, yet so blank…
    Advertisement holds a big part in the circle of life when it comes to the big consumer world.
    though on the contraire, when you think about brzil the first thing that comes to mind is the jungles, the big nature green planes, maybe that’s a step for creating a widespread community…

    Posted by: Alon.A on November 24th, 2007 at 8:24 pm

  49. grafitti is also being chased by the major here

    Posted by: kurye on February 22nd, 2008 at 4:35 am

  50. [...] άρθρα θα βρείς στο Adbusters, PingMag, στο BusinessWeek, στη Herald [...]

    Posted by: Nassos K. | Crazymonkey » São Paulo No Logo on July 6th, 2008 at 10:35 pm

  51. [...] Werbeblogger, Off Center, International Herald Tribune, Pingmag, Businessweek, BoingBoing, Anti-Advertising, [...]

    Posted by: Sao Paulo ohne Werbung - Nachhall Texter on August 19th, 2008 at 8:56 am

  52. Use SkyBoard to get rid of the illegal clutter of fix billboards: http://www.msb-international.com

    Posted by: MPT on September 1st, 2008 at 7:19 am

  53. It’s clear that visual pollution is another way of mental disease. Such fakes like logos must be erased from the entire universe. I hope this will be a tendency in all cities over the world, such as the smoke-banning. It will clear the path to elaborate on trully aesthetics of people¿s needs. It’s a great way to recover the urban space…It will be tons of fun!!

    Posted by: joker ad on January 29th, 2009 at 8:05 am

  54. THANKS VERY GOOD YOUR SİTE

    Posted by: Bursa Evden Eve Nakliyat on May 25th, 2009 at 10:02 pm

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