Should billboard advertising be banned?

广告牌广告应该被禁止吗？

"These ads are in the public space without any consultation about what is shown on them," she says. "Plus they cause light pollution, and the ads are for things people can't afford, or don't need." Ms Gage is the network director of UK pressure group Adfree Cities, which wants a complete ban on all outdoor corporate advertising. This would also apply to the sides of buses, and on the London Underground and other rail and metro systems.

“这些户外广告牌往往出现在公共场所，没有就广告内容提供咨询。此外，它们会造成光污染且广告产品往往人们买不起或不需要的东西。”英国压力集团“无广城市”（Adfree Cities）的网络总监盖琪女士指出。该组织希望全面禁止所有户外企业广告，包括公交车侧面广告、伦敦地铁和其他铁路轨道系统的广告。

If you think this is a fanciful aim, then you might need to think again, as it has already happened in a few places around the world.

如果你认为全面禁止户外广告是异想天开的话，那么你可能需要重新思考一下了，因为一些地方已经做到了这一点。

As far back as 2006, the giant Brazilian city of Sao Paulo, the largest in the southern hemisphere, banned all forms of outdoor advertising. Under the so-called Clean City Law, more than 15,000 billboards were subsequently removed, plus 300,000 store signs that were considered to be too large.

早在2006年，南半球最大的城市圣保罗就禁止了各种户外广告。根据所谓的《城市清洁法》，该城市拆除了15000多块广告牌与30万块被认为太大的商店标志。

The French city of Grenoble followed suit in 2014. Its Assistant Mayor Lucile Lheureux explained at the time that the advertising firms wanted to upgrade their billboards to digital screens and "we don't want our city's children bombarded with animated advertising on TV screens in the street".

2014年，法国格勒诺布尔市紧随其后。其助理市长卢克·勒斯勒尔当时解释说，广告公司希望将广告牌升级为数字屏幕，“我们不希望城市孩子在街道上被数字屏幕上的动画广告轰炸”。

More recently, Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, banned some outdoor adverts last year - those for petrol and diesel-fuelled cars and air travel. And this March, Bristol City Council banned outdoor adverts for gambling firms, junk food, alcohol and payday loans, but only on the advertising spaces that it owns, including bus shelters and billboards. Norwich City Council is exploring a similar move after councillors last year voted in favour.

荷兰首都阿姆斯特丹去年禁止了一些户外广告，包括汽油和柴油汽车以及航空旅行的广告。今年3月，布里斯托尔市议会禁止赌博公司、垃圾食品、酒精和发薪日贷款的户外广告，但仅限于其拥有的广告位，包括候车亭和广告牌。在去年议员投票赞成后，诺维奇市议会正在探索类似的举措。

Ms Gage says that while there are "ethical issues with junk food ads, pay day loans and high-carbon products [in particular], people would rather see community ads and art rather than have multi-billion dollar companies putting logos and images everywhere".

盖琪女士表示，虽然“垃圾食品广告、发薪日贷款和高碳产品存在道德问题，但人们宁愿看到社区广告和艺术，也不愿让市价数十亿美元的公司到处张贴标志和图像”。

She adds: "We're not saying people shouldn't own cars or eat burgers, but we know there's a direct correlation between seeing ads and purchasing these products." Ms Gage adds that resistance to such "sight pollution" is growing in the UK. Adfree Cities, which was set up in 2020, now supports a network of eight community groups across the country - all opposed to outdoor corporate advertising.

她补充道：“这并不是说人们不应该拥有汽车或吃汉堡，但我们知道广告曝光和产品消费之间有直接联系。”英国对这种“视觉污染”的抵抗力正在增强。“无广城市”成立于2020年，现在支持全国八个社区团体组成的网络，所有这些团体都反对户外企业广告。

Tim Lumb, from the trade body Outsmart, points out that adverts "contribute a significant amount of money every year to the transport authorities and local councils through rent and business rates". He adds: "In a free society businesses have the right to advertise their wares, and individual citizens are not the helpless, brainless automatons that Adfree Cities considers them to be.

贸易机构Outsmart的特里姆伯指出，广告“每年通过租金和商业费率为交通部门和地方议会贡献大量资金”。他补充道：“在自由社会中，企业有权为自己的商品做广告，而公民并不是“无广城市”所认为的那种无助、无脑的机器人。

"Individuals make free and informed decisions about their spending choices, and pursue whatever they consider to be their 'good life', safe in the knowledge that advertising in the UK, including OOH, is appropriately regulated to ensure it is legal, decent, honest and truthful." Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for another trade organisation, the Advertising Association, says that "all advertising plays a crucial role in brand competition, drives product innovation, and fuels economic growth".

“个人享有支出选择的自由权和知情权，并追求他们认为是“美好生活”的一切，因为他们知道英国的广告，包括户外广告，受到了适当监管，以确保其合法性、体面性、诚实性和真实性。”与此同时，另一个贸易组织广告协会的发言人表示，“广告在品牌竞争中发挥着至关重要的作用，其能推动产品创新，促进经济增长”。

词汇小结：

• light pollution：光污染

• outdoor corporate advertising：户外企业广告

• fanciful：空想的；幻想的

• subsequently：随后

• bombard：轰炸，连环炮击; 轰击; 大肆提问;

• gambling：赌博; 投机，冒险

• pay day loans ：发薪日贷款

• automatons：机器人；机械般行动的人或动物

编辑：ETTBL

翻译：Gleen

材料来源：BBC

*配图取自网络，仅供学习分享使用，侵删