Before and after pics reveal extraordinary effect of removing ads from urban landscape
Before and after photos from Gdańsk show the dramatic impact of removing massive ads from Poland’s urban landscape.
Attached to buildings or pasted onto huge billboards, the highly coloured ads have come under attack from groups calling for a ‘pushback’.
The examples include a hotel that had its façade – including many windows – covered by a huge ad for a watch company, which has since been removed.
A “landscape law” introduced in 2015, allowed municipalities to define the rules and conditions for the placement of ads, among other things.
Since then, several Polish cities have adopted a landscape resolution or are in the process of doing so.
There are also photos of apartment blocks, shopping centres, sides of buildings and roadsides which were once plastered with loud ads, as well as of places where billboard stands once stood.
Now a Facebook page called Pogromca Reklamozy (which translates as “the Ad Buster”) has been following the transformation, from individual buildings to entire cities, as the advertisements come down.
Recently, the page’s team did a survey of the changes in Gdańsk, on Poland’s Baltic coast, where a landscape resolution has been in place since 2018.
Recently, the page’s team did a survey of the changes in Gdańsk, on Poland’s Baltic coast, where a landscape resolution has been in place since 2018.
The document sets out the “what, where and how” of putting up adverts in Gdańsk, including their type, size and positioning.
Since then, there have been over 2,600 official requests for ads in the city to be removed.
Some ads even covered whole windows.
Pogromcy Reklamozy told Bored Panda: "We are a group of people who decided one day that we can’t stand the so-called visual pollution in our city and we want to do something about it, rather than only complain.
"Our main goals are, on the one hand, fighting visual pollution and, on the other hand, promoting stricter landscape regulations and show positive examples.”
The Ad buster group said: "Our main goals are, on the one hand, fighting visual pollution and, on the other hand, promoting stricter landscape regulations and show positive examples.”
The difference is striking, as the “before and after” photos of Gdańsk shared by Pogromca Reklamozy show.
The examples include a hotel that had its façade – including many windows – covered by a huge ad for a watch company, which has since been removed.
There are also photos of apartment blocks, shopping centres, sides of buildings and roadsides which were once plastered with loud ads, as well as of places where billboard stands once stood.
