TRACEY DAVIES: The visual assault of Joburg’s outdoor advertising

David Ogilvy, the so-called father of advertising, wrote in his 1963 book, Confessions of an Advertising Man, that “man is at his vilest when he erects a billboard”.

By that measure, those responsible for outdoor advertising in the City of Joburg do not fare well.

The onslaught of gargantuan outdoor advertising has become a defining feature of a once visually attractive city, bombarding residents and visitors with an endless array of ugly, garish and brash demands for their attention.

Adding to the proliferation of colossal traditional billboards all along Joburg’s main roads and highways, in recent years even bigger billboards have been affixed to enormous piles of shipping containers, five containers high and six or seven wide.

Every building site and abandoned property (plentiful across the city) is wrapped with advertising sheeting. When these adverts are removed or fall into disrepair, the scaffolding that supported them is often just left behind, adding to the city’s sense of dilapidation and disrepair.

The latest manifestations of this in-your-face advertising are the electronic billboards that flash overly bright, intrusive messages from every street corner. Apparently without regard for the dangers this must pose to drivers, these gigantic screens are now also being erected on the edges of city highways.

Outdoor advertising is regulated by the City of Joburg outdoor advertising bylaw. 

Before giving approval, the municipality must consider the sign’s “compatibility with the environment and with the amenity of the immediate neighbourhood, urban design and streetscape”, and whether the sign will “have a negative visual impact” on residential areas, “constitute a traffic hazard”, obscure any significant architectural, heritage or historical feature, or be “unsightly or objectionable”.

The bylaw includes rules for how far advertising signs must be erected from roads, and prohibits animated, flashing or illuminated signs that may disturb residents or occupants of buildings or constitute a traffic hazard.

Reports indicate that between 70% and 90% of outdoor advertising in Joburg is illegal, which is borne out by comparing the bylaw requirements with what you actually see all over the city.   

Unfortunately, the bylaw requires the municipality to obtain a court order before it can dismantle an illegal sign. The council’s attempt to bring into force an amended bylaw that would dispense with this requirement has been stymied by litigation launched by (no surprises here) commercial real estate lobby group the South African Property Owners Association and various outdoor advertising companies.

Whatever the legal merits of the challenge to the amended bylaw, the companies responsible for outdoor advertising are far from being able to claim any moral high ground.

The outdoor advertising industry is worth billions of rand a year, and it is clear to anyone who spends half an hour driving around Joburg that it is taking full advantage of the fact that the city is hamstrung by litigation in its enforcement capabilities.

To be sure, the city itself has a huge interest in the revenue generated from advertising on property that it owns. But this interest is constrained by its obligation to enforce and uphold the bylaw’s conditions.

Commercial interests have no such constraint, and this is why it is so important that regulators can act to prevent public spaces from becoming sites of intrusive commercial bombardment.

As one advertising executive said in an industry punt for South Africa’s biggest roadside LED screen — larger than two tennis courts — which has been erected next to the N1: “It is inconceivable that anyone could ignore a screen of this size for the full duration of the 800m-plus run-up.” 

The clients of these outdoor advertising agencies, which include most of the country’s biggest and most prominent companies, also have questions to answer. Are they condoning the use of illegal signage to peddle their wares, or just conveniently not asking any questions?

It is hard to find accurate recent information about the state of the legal impasse between the council and the outdoor advertising lobby, but the longer it continues, the more these companies will continue their assault on Joburg’s amenities and the consciousness of its residents.