February 6, 2007
By Neil Fraser
A PHYSICAL start was made on the Gautrain inner city station on Sunday, 4 February when four buildings in the block bounded by Smit, Wolmarans, Eloff and Joubert streets were imploded at 9am. It was "quite a blast".
Billboards
I have three positive personal experiences related to billboards to relate.
On a visit to Rome some years back, I noticed a number of historic buildings being restored and renovated. Each was totally enclosed by builder's hoardings, in the form of what we today call "wraps", on which were printed an image of what the building would like when completed. There was no advertising, not even of the builder's name.
It was a great benefit to the city - not having an untidy building site; and a great benefit to citizens and tourists - being advised of what could be expected as an outcome of what was happening behind the wrap.
Travelling on a train between Amsterdam and Rotterdam, I passed a very large modern glass skyscraper, probably 40 to 50 storeys in height, which had been completely wrapped. The giant image it carried was of a member of the Dutch soccer team "smashing through the wrapping" as he appeared to come towards the viewer dribbling a football.
Later, when I went to have a look at the building in more detail, I found that the back of the building contained the rear view of the same figure, going away from the viewer. It was really exciting because it was huge and incredibly vibrant and just pulsating with energy and it related to a current major event. It was almost insignificantly branded by Nike and was a short-term wrap related to Euro 2000.
Not a once-off experience, but one I continually enjoy every time I'm in New York, is a visit to Times Square. This space, not that large horizontally by "square" standards - it stretches from West 42nd to West 47th streets at the junction of Broadway and 7th Avenue - has achieved iconic world landmark status principally because of its gigantic and often animated billboard advertisements.
In fact the first billboard advertisement appeared there way back in 1904. At that time, Times Square was growing into something of a cultural hub for the city and, by the 1930s, was full of theatres, music halls and upmarket hotels.
When I first visited Times Square in 1982 it had declined dramatically into a seedy and quite dangerous area. Although there were still some theatres, the area was better known for its sleazy adult shops, "peep shows" and strip bars. Its iconic image was decidedly negative - a symbol of what was worst in New York.
But, later in the 1980s, that started to change again under a development plan conceived under former mayors Ed Koch and David Dinkins and led largely by the newly established Business Improvement District or BID (what we would call a city improvement district). Sex and porn shops were closed while increased security drove out the "squeegee men", hucksters and pimps and more tourist friendly establishments started to open.
In 1990, renovations to six of the nine historic theatres on 42nd Street were started. A zoning ordinance was passed that required every building in Times Square to have illuminated billboards above the first floor level and the square regained its iconic landmark status.
The Nasdaq sign at 4 Times Square cost $37-million to build in 2000 and the 40m high sign brings in more than $2-million (R14,5-million) a year in space rental income. The giant, 16-storey high, 20m wide Hershey Bar ad (they call them "spectaculars") has 34 props, four steam engines, 4 000 fixed and 30 programmable lights and 56 giant neon letters.
Today Times Square often acts as the backdrop or location for films (Vanilla Sky, Spider-Man, King Kong, and so forth). It is also the shooting location for various TV shows and the background to numerous video games.
Technology
Lately advertisers have discovered that technology has provided a new "cutting edge" to spread their messages via the internet. Events held in Times Square are videoed by thousands of people and then put on web pages, blogs, and so on and are seen by millions.
General Electric rented nine digital billboards in Times Square on which it displayed pictures of the people passing the site. Those people in turn took photos and videos of their images and soon these were circulating the world on line.
The very latest technology, heaven forbid, allows advertisers to beam messages and advertisements to the cellphones of people passing by. In a two-week trial recently in London, the billboard detected 87&nbp;000 passers by over the period, of which 17 percent were prepared to download song clips from a new music album that was being promoted in this way.
Beneficiaries are clearly the advertising companies and the property owners, but also the millions of tourists who see Times Square as synonymous with the United States. Yes, it is blatantly commercial - no-one apologises for that fact - and it is one of the few places in the world that has laws requiring billboards to be erected, but it is confined to that area.
Joburg
Let's come home. In Rosebank recently, on a prominent site, the builder's hoarding reflected not what was going to be built, but a dozen nubile young ladies clad in their underwear, the focus of the ad, each with a sexy caption. The same style of ad appears currently on a building site in Sandton.
Sandton Drive features a variety of ads promoting competing strip clubs. I'm not a Mother Grundy and I realise that our constitution doesn't allow any discrimination, but what about just plain old good civic taste and values?
Now, drive south down Bertha Street, the continuation of Jan Smuts Avenue, through Braamfontein, and what do you see? On the left there is a huge, six- or seven-storey high ad for an oil company displaying engine valves. It is not the most uplifting of signs (which some may at least attribute to the bra ads in Rosebank).
On the right, an empty, vacant shell of a building is completely wrapped. Bear left and go over Queen Elizabeth Bridge and you are immediately accosted visually by dozens of billboards, some on roofs, some on the sides of buildings, some on either side of the bridge. Your senses are assaulted - there is clearly no standard set for type of message, number and size of signs.
There are old signs that are in a disgusting state and there are some billboard structures that are empty as marketing companies look for new advertisers. We have indiscriminately cluttered our city environment and we assault the sensibility of our citizens.
Am I advocating a ban on billboards? No, not at all - I am, however, suggesting that an intelligent approach would lead to more judicious use of our public space, which, after all, belongs to citizens and not to the local authority. The council, in my view, has an obligation to ensure that the messages and numbers of adverting boards are within reason.
In 2000 the rooftops in Athens had been allowed to grow so thick with billboards that one couldn't even view the architecture for which the city is famous. The council embarked on a four-year project to demolish the majority of the rooftop billboards to beautify the city for the hordes of visitors expected for the Olympics.
Surely their first responsibility was to their citizens who had to endure the visual pollution of their beautiful city for years? It turns out that most of the ads were, in fact, illegal, a fact ignored by the city authorities for years.
Who benefits
So, who really benefits from our billboards? Firstly, the property owners benefit. As is the case with the building to the west of the Braamfontein entrance to the Nelson Mandela Bridge, income from advertising clearly outweighs the cost of restoring the building and letting it. So, why bother?
I understand that some of these building wraps bring in more than R100 000 a month for the property owner. If the building was let it would bring people and economy to the area - not just to a single pocket.
Then, the advertiser clearly benefits, or why advertise? Fair enough, it is paying for that right, but let's at least be a little bit discerning about what and how much should be allowed. And, of course, the marketing company makes big bucks and the City also has an income.
I don't believe the public benefits except when the billboards are used non-commercially, as we did some years ago for the Joburg Art City project. That great billboard "Joburg Man" in Main Street is still admired by many.
Where does the charge made by the City go to? Some years ago the City approved that a percentage (I think it was 15 percent) of all outdoor advertising income generated within the inner city would go into an inner city fund. That never happened, so where does the money go?
It appears to be absorbed into general income, which means that no-one has any idea what it is used for. This is not transparent, not accountable for and not acceptable. If we are to have our senses assailed in this manner, then at least let us see that the money is put to good effect.
One approach that comes immediately to mind is improving the public environment in two ways: firstly, by providing additional funding for public art. I say "additional" because I know that the City has recently approved a proposal that funds from all capital expenditure on major projects be made available for this.
But additional funding from outdoor advertising would really enable us to catch up our generally barren past and empower some great and significant public artworks, such as one experiences in so many world-class cities.
Secondly, please could we fund a small group of workers to clear our pavements and road gutters of weeds? No department or utility appears to have this responsibility. Have you driven up Rissik Street lately? If you have you cannot help but have noticed the disgusting state of the stretch parallel to Park Station.
I'd always understood that Rissik Street was supposed to be the ceremonial street of the city - in my wildest imagining I can't perceive what kind of ceremonies someone has in mind. The flower boxes, if they are not being used for refuse, display dead plants, and their sides are covered in graffiti. Weeds sprout from the pavements and the road gutters.
This stretch is a disgrace and whoever is responsible for keeping this area up to scratch should be severely penalised. That's why a dedicated team paid for out of a special budget would be a godsend. And it would provide employment for a group - maybe the homeless who sleep outside the Kazerne parking garages on the pavement could thus be funded sufficiently to find a roof over their heads.
In interviewing of developers that I am doing at the moment I ask what incentives they would like to see introduced. The 100 percent response to date has been, "Forget incentives, just get the City to do what it is supposed to do and you'll create an environment that will promote investment". Refuse removal and public environment maintenance are high on their list of what the City is not doing.
Enough. Have a great week,
Regards, Neil
PS: Walking Tours by the Parktown and Westcliff Heritage Trust
Saturday, 10 February - "Langlaagte and Paarlshoop"
Saturday, 17 February - "Drill Hall"
Make a special note of Wednesday, 21 February. There is an Alex Bus Tour and SA Ballet Outreach Programme. The bus leaves Sunnyside Park Hotel at 12 noon. I will have more details next week, but for any more information on any of the above tours, phone 011 482 3349 in the mornings only.
Book at Computicket on 011 340 8000 or online at the Computicket website.
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