Does anything of note stand out in the photo below?
My view of São Paulo.
A city skyline? A beautifully crisp sunny day? An abundance of high-rise buildings? The haze of smog above them?
Well yes, but that’s not what I was looking for.
Ok, let’s take a closer look. What about in my street-level photo of Avenida Paulista (São Paulo’s main avenue)?
Avenida Paulista.
A traffic jam? More high-rise buildings? Another sunny day?
Again yes, but it’s still not what I’m looking for.
Ok, let’s pause for a moment because maybe I’ve been a little disingenuous. What about if I instead told you that what I was hinting at was not what you can see, but what you can’t?
Take another look…Any ideas now?
No? Nothing?
Ok, don’t worry about it too much, it took me a while too…
—–
After arriving in São Paulo in February I slowly started to become familiar with my new surroundings, first around my local neighbourhood, then the more well-known areas where the ‘sights’ are, and later the rest, as and when the opportunity arose.
As I don’t drive I’ve made most of my observations and best discoveries on foot, which is something of an alien concept in São Paulo – a city, let’s be frank, that is not hugely pedestrian friendly.
Wheelchair and Pushchair Friendly… (Photo by Milton Jung)
Opting, where possible, to walk around São Paulo has enabled me to discover countless things that I would’ve undoubtedly missed had I instead sped past them on a bus or avoided them altogether by taking the Metro.
And, yet, despite this, whilst I strolled the streets of Sampa I still felt as if I was missing something, although I couldn’t really put my finger on what.
Until that is, I received a message from my buddy Maarten and everything fell into place:
Watching a documentary showing São Paulo’s lack of outdoor advertising. Very cool.
“Of course”, I thought, “that’s what is missing!”
Yes, what is missing from my photos, and what I subconsciously felt was missing, is advertising.
“Advertising?” I can hear you jest, “Missing?”
Yes, missing. And that, in my opinion, is the coolest thing about São Paulo, because here in Sampa outdoor advertising has been made illegal.
“But how?”
Well, it was the result of a law passed in 2006 by the former mayor, Gilberto Kassab, and for reasons which he explains below in a clip taken from the Morgan Spurlock film The Greatest Movie Ever Sold – the one my buddy mentioned in his message.
The law not only bans billboards but also advertisements on the sides of buses and taxis, as well as restricting the size of signs on shopfronts. As a result nearly 15,000 billboards were removed and $8 million in fines handed out for non-compliance, which isn’t bad for a country where the passing of a law hasn’t necessarily always meant it’ll be enforced.
An empty billboard on Avenida Paulista.
What’s also impressive is that this has never happened anywhere outside of the ‘communist world’, which again isn’t bad for somewhere that in pretty much every other way is your archetypal 21st century capitalist city. For example, São Paulo has the ninth highest GDP of any city in the world, making it the richest city in both Brazil (the state of São Paulo’s GDP makes up a third of the total of Brazil) and South America. Add to this the fact that it is also home to almost every major financial institution and boasts one of the largest private fleets of helicoptors in the world, and you’ll start to understand that São Paulo’s a city where a lot of money is being made, and where a lot of money is waiting to be spent on consumer goods.
In light of this, you have to give credit to Gilberto Kassab and his successors because Brazilian politicians aren’t exactly known for being adverse to mixing their day job with other bits on the side. In other words, it would have been very easy for Kassab to have been ‘influenced’ by an advertising firm or big business to bin the law, and for that credit is due.
A testament to this is that six years after the law was passed the ban is still in place and São Paulo remains ad-free, and it’s absolutely refreshing – well, it is for someone like me whose feelings about advertising can be pretty much summed up by the following:
Ok, so maybe death is a little harsh, but, you know, I just think that it’s very cool that when I step outside my apartment my views aren’t dominated by companies trying to convince me how much I need to buy a new car, gadget or some other such thing which I really can’t afford and probably don’t need anyway.
However…
This wouldn’t be a blog by me without a little moan, because whilst we live ad-free it has had the effect of exposing us to the fifty shades of beige that is São Paulo’s often uninspiring and ‘functional’ buildings – and believe me there are a lot of them (cast your eyes back to the first photo).
Although, without the distraction of advertising your eyes are free to observe what sits in its place – and that’s mainly graffiti. On the one hand this consists, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, of some the finest and most abundant street art anywhere in the world. On the other it is ugly street-tagging called Pichação.
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Pichação (from Wikimedia Commons)
Somehow São Paulo’s facades can at the same time be uninspiring, beautiful and ugly – sometimes all in one street or even one building. But this, I guess, kind of sums São Paulo up perfectly: it’s a city of extremes.
But…
C’mon Paulistanos, let’s not just be content with keeping the city ad-free, let’s get rid of the drab too! Instead of a beige, khaki or grey for your building why not a blue or red? Or why not something a little more adventurous:
Rua Consolação
Avenida Paulista
Avenida Brigadeiro Faria Lima
These pieces were produced by local artists and collectives, however it should also be noted that they were commissioned by GE Brasil, so depending on how you look at it they might as well be the very things I was raging against earlier – advertisements.
Whilst not branded they do have a GE logo (I couldn’t spot them), though GE states that they are “pieces of art” that are a “gift to the city” to make it look more colourful.
So, what do you Paulistanos think? Are they pieces of art or just advertisements in disguise? Does it even matter?
And finally, what about the ad ban itself? Are you in favour too?
You tell me…
the book is on the table 
I think getting rid of the visual pollution is good but I don’t think advertising is evil so I’m really not sure how I feel about the law. One unintended consequence I’ve noticed is that since shops had to take down their large names from the shop front when the law was passed, some of them have adopted large glass windows with the name inside. It must be a technicality because now the name is inside the shop even though it’s visible from the outside. I think it looks classier that way so it’s not a bad thing.
Small correction, by the way: the city makes up about 10% of the national GDP. The state of Sao Paulo is about a third.
I’ve noticed the glass window thing on Paulista – quite canny.
Someone else pointed out the stat and it now stands corrected!
glad you like the city. now how about removing the ads on your blog?
Ads?
Hello Andy ! I’m a keen reader of your website and would have a bunch of questions regarding accomodations in Sao Paulo. I’ll be flying there with my 40-or-so classmates in May next year and am trying to gather as much information as possible as to the possible places (youth hostels etc…) where we’d be able to stay, for a cheap price but at a secure location. Do you perchance have an idea of where we could go ? It’d be for 5 to 6 days. We could obviously be splitted into several different accomodations as well, just not too distant from each other!
Thanks for any help and keep up the great work,
Igor (you can answer directly on my email address)
Hey Igor, thanks for reading the blog and I’m glad you like it enough to come back for more!
I have to say that my knowledge of hostels in SP is a bit limited but the best ares to stay will probably be either in the Jardins or Vila Madalena. Both are safe neighbourhoods and nice places to stay although this also means that it will cost more to stay in hostels there…Unfortunately though, everything in general in SP is expensive so the less you pay the less likely you are that what you get will be nice and in a decent area…Sorry I couldn’t be much more help.
Where are you travelling from?
We’re based in Paris but we’ll be staying in Rio, then Paraty before coming to Sao Paulo. Thanks for your help, we’ll try to look for places in that area!
Nice, Paraty is a very nice place. If you have time you might want to consider a day or short trip to nearby Trinidade. It’s stunning and still relatively undiscovered. Have a great trip!
I’m not a fan of the ban. São Paulo isn’t exactly a beautiful looking city and some advertisements would help make it look prettier.
And as you noted, the ads still persist. Who gets to have their ads up even with the ban? Those with lots of money or political connections. The mom and pop shop on the corner is hurt by this ban more than Coca Cola. The ban pushes people to pursue more expensive means of advertising, which not every business can afford.
Down with the ban!
Fair enough, we’ll agree to disagree!
You Andy always have something funny to say about Brasil and São Paulo. But you made a continous mistake of judgment: you think that we love english people. Well, i got a surprise for you: we don’t. Gandhi would agrre with me that your people should’nt be allowed anywere in the world, and should stay on the island, and never leave.
I don’t know, here I was actually being quite nice about São Paulo. Can’t please everyone I guess.
He can’t speak for all of us! I agree with your opinion, and for me ads are not only ugly, but awful. Keep writing!
Haha thanks, that’s very much appreciated!
Hi Andy,
Great pictures of Brazil, gives one a feel of the Brazilian culture. I recently read your Expat blog which gave an interesting Westerner’s perspective of the expat term. If you or anyone you know in Brazil would like to learn about a business opportunity opening for entrepreneurs in Brazil which helps underprivileged and orphaned children please visit my web site. Our company just launched in Brazil this month. Our mission is to help improve the lives of needy children world-wide, while simultaneously offering a business opportunity for Brazilian entrepreneurs. Basic requirement, a good heart!
Best regards, Allen
Hi!
On this sleepy workless afternoon at work I found your blog. I love how you can point out the many crappy stuff about this city and yet you seem to show appreciation for it. I guess most Paulistanos simply dismiss it as ugly, dangerous, you name it, and would rather live in Miami instead. (Not really my image of a great city.)
Anyway, getting down to the point: I believe the outdoor ad ban, in spite of all its merits (try to imagine how the old city centre looked like with its beautiful historic buildings covered head to toes in ads and signs…) is flawed in at least one fundamental aspect: it treats shop signs as being the same as billboards.
This has generated distortions such as many small stores, bars and restaurants having put down their signage after the ban and not putting on a new sign that fits the new size limits. So sometimes finding a commercial establishment can be a real anthropological quest. It is to me unknown, however, the exact reason why so many shopowners chose to simply not have a sign anymore: maybe the cost of ordering new signage wasn’t perceived as advantageous in view of an already established clientele? Or maybe some of them for whatever reason ignore what the new requirements are and chose to avoid the risk of being fined?
Also I believe the ban could have made some exceptions, for instance in the Liberdade neighbourhood, whose signs written in Japanese and Chinese used to compose its Asian ambience (albeit too touristy).
All in all it’s good to have an ad-free city. I’d just make it a wee bit more flexible.
Abraços!
Daniel Ávila
Hey Daniel, thank you for reading and for providing some extremely kind and engaging comments!
Yes, I’ve always found it strange about shop signs, especially those of bars, botecos, etc. In an earlier post on beer (I think you commented on it) I contrasted how pubs in the UK very distinguishable with their signs and decor, and are even used as reference points for directions. Here you can walk past a lot of botecos without even noticing them! I think that may also be because for botecos the name has less cultural significance than pubs, although I might be wrong (?).
But I agree, places like Liberdade, which have cultural significance, should be given some exception. On the whole though, I love the fact adverts are not invading my daily space. It’s fantastic!