Flyposters - where taxpayers pay for the ads

The writing is on the wall for flyposters writes the Telegraph as it reports that Camden council has named and shamed three advertising execs who work for Sony and BMG for flypostering. Camden spends ca £250,000 a year scraping posters of Beyoncé, George Michael, Avril and the likes from the walls, windows, letterboxes and even statues. If Camden is succeful with their suit which will be heard next month, the executives could face up to five years in jail.

It's not just record companies that use fly posters, Nissan, Nike and Volkswagen have been at it, while Mates condoms put stickers with the words I shagged here on nearly any available flat surface.

Will the looming threat of jailtime put an end to this menace? Alan James, the chief executive of the Outdoor Advertising Association doesn't seem to think so when he spoke to the Telegraph, and added:

"But I do think that the idea of not going after small nightclubs and the like but larger established companies is a good one. The same goes for naming and shaming not only the companies but their senior executives.

"Very often, senior people claim they don't know it's been happening - that the PR company or a promotions manager was responsible. This means it's no longer an excuse to say 'I didn't know'."

"Camden estimates that BMG UK and Ireland saves £5.6 million per year in advertising costs through flyposting in the borough, while Sony UK saves £3 million. And it costs Camden taxpayers around £250,000 per year to take them down."

Recently on this topic, Brandon discussed ad creep, we all remember the Microsoft butterflies and the IBM Peace Love and Linux that they later had to remove and were fined for in the states.

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Anonymous Adgrunt's picture
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Hidden Persuader's picture

To London's Camden Council it is environmental pollution deserving of an Asbo (anti-social behaviour order); to Tim Horrox (of Diabolical Liberties) it is 'ambient marketing', and a 'trade as old as the hills'. In The Observer Magazine

Dabitch's picture

I'm honestly suprised that so few have commented on this.

1) the executives could face up to five years in jail. - Who here is screaming "yeay, serves you right you stingy b'stard!"? (except me then..).. Who here has done the same and now feeling a tad worried that you might face big fines/jailtime?

2) How do you feelk when you tax-money is going towards cleaning the city from advertising rather than say, vandalism or toward repair of streets etc? This isn't an isolated incident - It's happening in most European cities, and in the US.