Beaches should be a sanctuary away from the hustle and bustle. But beachgoers in Florida are finding that harder to achieve as ads replace some of their ocean views.
A Redditor shared photos to the r/LateStageCapitalism subreddit revealing floating billboards for a food delivery app and event hall dominating the seascape.
Unfortunately, this is far from an isolated incident, specifically in Florida. More billboards are going up and interfering with natural experiences that should be free from the most blatantly commercial aspects of humanity.
The scenario here compelled one Redditor to point out the hypocrisy of what constitutes an eyesore when it comes to the ocean.
They sarcastically wrote: "But god forbid we use offshore wind turbines. They're so ugly!"
It's a fair point that scrapping clean energy projects on the water due to their optics seems highly inconsistent with allowing advertising to muddy up beachgoers' experience.
It's worth pointing out that the food hall being advertised has since permanently closed. Meanwhile, Reuters reported the food app was fined $6.2 million by regulators in Massachusetts since the appearance of the ads.
Still, it's clear these beach billboards are here to stay until residents put so much pressure on local officials to ban them that it actually happens.
This situation raises larger questions about how far advertising should reach into our natural spaces. Maine, Vermont, Alaska, and Hawaiʻi are the only states with complete billboard prohibitions, per Scenic America. Many communities do forbid new construction for billboards.
As it stands, the pervasiveness of ads is at an all-time high. Everything from fortune cookies to trucks on the highway seems to have unavoidable ads.
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$200 or more 💰 Redditors vented their frustration at the tactics of advertisers.
"What a great way to make me loathe your product," one shared.
"This should not be allowed," a user declared.
"The people who approved this have their own private (aka: ad-free) beaches," a Redditor explained. "They do not rub elbows with the riff raff (aka: everyone else)."
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