Where have all the Billboards Gone?

If you’ve driven down the airport expressway recently, the difference is shocking: where just a month ago billboard after billboard touting luxury apartment complexes, flat-screens and all manner of consumer goods littered the landscape and blocked your view, now the horizons bordering the highway are practically advertisement-free and the ride from the airport is a calm break from the rampant materialism of the capital.

But it’s not only frequent fliers who will notice the difference; all around the city billboards and large advertisements have been chai’d or painted over. According to an Olympics official, more than 90% of “unsafe and unlicensed billboards” have already been taken down, with the remainder to be removed by September.

It’s a nice break, in most cases – but what’s the motivation? In April, the government stated that ostentatious advertising for luxury condos and villas was incompatible with China’s goal of a harmonious society. So is this spate of chai’ing simply a reflex reaction against conspicuous consumption, or is something else going on?

Turns out the government has been warning advertising companies about impending crackdowns on illegal billboards since way back in 2002. But since everything was a bit ambiguous and nothing was enforced until this past April, advertisers continued with their billboarding. As a result, currently 14% of the Chinese advertising market is in billboards – a higher proportion than that of any other country.

But is it merely the case that the authorities have finally got around to enforcing their own regulations or, as some have theorized, are the prime advertising spots simply being saved for Olympic sponsors, with social harmony offered up as the holy excuse?

Given the recent history of outdoor advertising in other Olympic host cities - see this 2004 article in the Guardian that explains it in detail - we think that this just might be the most likely of explanations. Whatever the cause, it’s definitely made a taxi ride down the Eastern Third Ring Road less visually stimulating.

Links and Sources
China Daily: Beijing face-lifts before Olympic Games
Wall Street Journal: Beijing Mystery: What's Happening To the Billboards?(requires subscription); Free full-text PDF version available here
Guardian: Olympics battles against 'ambush marketing'