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From: peter@taronga.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: misc.consumers,alt.activism,talk.environment,comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: Advertising is bad
Keywords: DMA Suppression junk-mail recycling activism
Message-ID: <6VD1H1K@taronga.hackercorp.com>
Date: 12 Feb 91 23:40:49 GMT
References: <992@organpipe.UUCP> <oo81w4w163w@cellar.UUCP>
Organization: A corner of our bedroom
Lines: 32

In article <992@organpipe.UUCP>, someone wrote...
> > 	2. Billboards and posters are unappealing and add to what I like to 
> > 	   call "City Junk".

In article <oo81w4w163w@cellar.UUCP>, toad@cellar.UUCP (Tony Shepps) quotes
P.J. O'Rourke:
> "'What could be uglier than billboards?' [...] In Communist countries you
> don't get to see the giant pictures of the [stuff] that fill people's
> dreams.  You just see the people and where they live."

I agree. When I first came to the United States, from Sydney, I was quite
overwhelmed by the billboards. For me they will always represent the
basic vitality of the country... I can't imagine a U.S. city without them.

Now the city of Sydney doesn't allow billboards visible from the harbour,
and the lower reaches of the harbour are a place of great scenic beauty.
But higher up the Paramatta river a few ads to cover up the shipyards,
naval facilities, and (let's face it) occasional slums would do wonders
for the place.

True story: when the Queen was visiting, they built huge burlap barricades
to keep the Queen from seeing the run-down parts of Redfern from the train.
A few billboards and nobody would ever have to avert their eyes.

Now whether that's a good thing or not is another point... but this is
getting pretty far from the EFF in any case. What will the equivalent
for cyberspace be? Prodigy, where the ads hide the basic poverty of the
system?
-- 
               (peter@taronga.uucp.ferranti.com)
   `-_-'
    'U`