In post-transformation Poland, we accepted the primacy of the need to catch up with advertising and color, which was supposed to replace the communist gray. In the landscape of our cities and villages, mottled billboards and banners sprouted up like mushrooms after the rain. At some point we stopped controlling all this, and the advertising chaos became a spatial Augias stable. We discuss why we have such a problem with advertising and what should be done about it with activists affiliated as the Reclamation Conquerors.
Wiktor Bochenek: Why do we have such a problem with advertisements in Poland?
Pogromcy Reklamozy: This is a very broad and multi-faceted topic and there is no single answer, but many contributing factors.
Certainly one of them is weak laws. This may come as a bit of a surprise to many, but the rules for placing advertisements in space are found in many pieces of legislation and in places are quite precise and detailed. The problem, however, is that there are no effective implementing regulations for these regulations, and administrative proceedings drag on for years, if they are initiated at all. The reason for this is certainly also the tardiness of offices and various types of institutions that should, as part of their duties, ensure that illegal advertisements are removed from space. For example, the City Road Administration and verification of advertisements in city-owned road lanes. A recent audit by the Supreme Audit Office in Lublin showed that out of 16 road sections inspected, 36 advertisements had permission from the road manager, while 399 did not. The city's co ffers are therefore losing 21.6 thousand a day in uncollected fees. If the rest of Lublin's roads are equally littered with ads, the city loses 540 thousand a day, or more than 16 million a month, or 192 million a year!
Eliminated ads after activists' action
© Reclamation Conquerors
Another issue is the Provincial Historic Preservation Officers and the control of whether there are advertisements on registered buildings, for which they did not give permission. There are many more such institutions: the Architectural Departments of City Hall, County Building Inspectors, etc. It happens that advertisements, despite being in violation of many regulations, function in the space for decades....
Another reason is what we would call a social issue, which is the lack of aesthetic education and the lack of understanding that the landscape is an asset that needs to be protected. Simply put, some people simply don't mind living in an area where the landscape is littered with hundreds of banners, flyers, billboards, advertising poles, swallowers, advertising flags, aggressive signs, posters, advertising nets covering up inches of building facades and a whole host of other advertising devices.
removed advertisements after activists' action
© Reclamation Conquerors
Finally, there is a certain group of people, which we laboriously call "libertarians." According to them, there should be no restrictions and the landscape is there for them to use as they please, and they claim that they can put anything they see fit on their property and no one has anything to do with it, as it is their sacred property right. Trying to effectively regulate advertising in space is, according to them, an assault on freedom and a return to communism. The last issue, and perhaps not the least, is that there are many companies that make money from this littering of the landscape. And it's not small money at all. Nationwide, we estimate it at hundreds of millions a year, if not more. These companies have learned to circumvent or even break the law and have made this a source of income for themselves.
For example, we recently asked several Departments of Architecture in various districts of Warsaw whether they had issued the legally required building permits for some 150 freestanding billboards. Imagine, from the answers we received, that out of 150 only 1 received the said permit! This is shocking and shows the scale of the problem. Most of the ads have been functioning in the space and devastating it for at least a dozen years, if not several decades... Presumably, the situation is similar in other cities that have not yet adopted the so-called Landscape Resolution.
Eliminated advertisements after activists' action
© Reclamation Conquerors
Wiktor: How can you fight illegal advertising carriers?
Conquerors: It is possible to fight illegal advertising carriers in many ways. The most common way is that we first determine on our own, or with the participation of relevant officials, whether the carrier is legal or not, and if it is not, we ask the relevant office or department to bring about its removal. Most often, we use the provisions of the road lane occupation and construction law.
For example, if you see an advertising board at a traffic light or on the lawn between the roadway and the sidewalk, it is most likely in the road lane. If it is a road lane, you can ask officials or, most often, you can also check for yourself on the Internet on land ownership maps available on the City Hall website. To place an advertisement in a road lane, you need the permission of the road manager and the payment of a monthly fee for occupying the road lane. If there was no such consent, the road manager can impose a fine on the owner of such an advertisement and have it removed.
removed advertisements after activists' action
© Reclamation Conquerors
Regarding the use of the construction law to remove advertisements, we will give an example. We see a freestanding advertising billboard on private property, according to the construction law, a building permit is needed to erect such a structure. So we can ask the Department of Architecture in the City Hall whether such a permit was issued for this particular property. If not, the matter should be referred to the District Building Inspector with a request to bring about the demolition of such a self-constructed structure.
Removed advertisements after activists' action
© Reclamation Conquerors
Victor: What tools are missing in the fight against advertosis?
Pogromcy: The placement of advertising media, as we have already mentioned, is regulated in many legal acts, in the Construction Law, in Local Zoning Plans, the Traffic Law, the Law on the Protection and Care of Monuments, or the Regulation of the Minister of Infrastructure regarding the covering of windows in residential buildings.
The problem is that they do not have effective enforcement provisions when a carrier is not in compliance with them, and sometimes there is even a lack of appropriate administrative bodies to enforce such a provision. In addition, sometimes administrative proceedings also drag on for years, and the owner of such a carrier earns money from it all the time. What is needed, therefore, are simple and effective regulations that would allow the removal of illegal advertisements and high administrative penalties calculated not as they are now, i.e. from the moment the illegal advertisement is revealed, but for all the years of its operation backwards.
Only theLandscape Resolutions partially solve the problem of enforcement. Partly, because only a very small percentage of municipalities have adopted them. There is no statutory obligation to introduce these resolutions. Besides, some municipalities have already announced that they will not do so, because, for example, according to them, the problem of illegal advertisements does not exist in their area, or they believe that there is no need to clean up the chaos in the space. So it would be useful to insert teeth into existing regulations and motivate officials to enforce them. Let the scale of the problem be illuminated by the case of Gdynia, which, before getting down to preparing the Landscape Resolution, checked what percentage of advertisements in the space is not in compliance with current regulations, and it came out that 80%.
From our experience, this figure is even further underestimated. In addition, we should take the example of the Czech Republic, where public pressure has forced the government to ban advertising along national roads, expressways and highways. When driving a car, one should focus on safety and not look at ads placed next to the roadway.
Eliminated ads after activists' action
© Reclamation Conquerors
Victor: Are you observing a change in thinking about "reklamosis"?
Pogromcy: There is definitely a growing awareness of the phenomenon of so-called visual pollution. Some cities in Poland such as Sopot and Gdansk have already introduced Landscape Resolutions and the problem of chaos in space caused by excessive advertising has been eliminated. More cities are working on similar resolutions in their areas. Public awareness is also growing, and initiatives such as ours are being created in various cities (Krakow, Poznan) to try to combat advertising. Not a week goes by that we don't get a request for substantive support in the fight against illegal advertisements in various regions of Poland. On the other hand, unfortunately, it is still too little to change the image of Poland as a whole. The trend is fortunately positive and we hope it will accelerate. For example, if only on the basis of a visit to the Tri-City or soon to Krakow (on July 1 the adjustment periods of the Landscape Resolution expire) where you can see that it can be normal.
Eliminated advertisements after activists' action
© Reclamation Conquerors
Victor: Billboards and advertisements are the ultimate evil? In your opinion, is there an amount that is optimal?
Conquerors: We are quite radical on this issue. There are cities in the world such as Geneva, Grenoble or Sao Paulo that have completely banned advertising in space and these cities continue to function. People buy cars, clothes, food and other products, and companies are forced to compete on price and quality rather than funds spent on promotions. The question that needs to be answered is what is the value to ordinary citizens of the functioning and display of advertisements in the landscape. What do we as residents really get out of it? We dare say nothing or very little. It is others who make money, and the ordinary person has to see them, whether he wants to or not. Since the city is supposed to be for its residents, and they do not benefit satisfactorily from the fact of their operation, the solution imposes itself. We are in the 21st century and you really don't need to litter every scrap of space to advertise. There is the Internet and a whole host of modern forms of promotion that do not devastate the landscape.
removed advertisements after activists' action
© Pogromcy Reklamozy
Wiktor: How long have you been active as Pogromcy Reklamozy? Doesn't your work have a Sisyphean character? Don't you sometimes catch yourselves by the head and think: will this do anything?
Pogroms: We have been operating as Reklamozy Pogroms for about two years, and during this time we have managed to get roughly two thousand illegal advertising media removed. We have also inspired quite a few people to take up the cause and clean up their neighborhoods. Following the motto that if we ourselves don't take responsibility for the place we live in, no one will do it for us. There are spaces in Warsaw that have changed dramatically after our interventions, as can be seen in the hundreds of photos we publish, which show the same places before and after the removal of the ads. We also have the impression that officials of various institutions have begun to pay more attention to this topic after our uncomfortable questions.
We definitely think that our work makes sense, and besides, we ourselves live in a friendlier neighborhood, because we started cleaning from our "backyard". We greet you and invite you to follow our Facebook profile.
Victor: Thank you for the interview!
Eliminated ads after activists' action
© Reclamation Conquerors
