A recent Reddit post highlighted the impact of a Polish law that limits the placement of billboards throughout the country.
This comes after towns and cities across Poland have taken action to limit such large advertisements in order to protect the design and architecture of the surrounding area.
As shared in a photo on Reddit, the entire side of one enormous building was originally used for advertisements. Now, you can see the actual building below.
Not only does it look much better, but fewer ads means less temptation to buy products that we simply don't need.
As one commenter claims, "Advertisement is about removing consumers' ability to make rational choices. It's nothing but manipulation."
A report by WARC shows that 75% of businesses believe their sales would drop if they didn't have billboards. While driving or passing through a city, billboards act as a prompt for brands and products, working on our subconscious to slowly make products seem more necessary to us over time.
What's more, in the case of digital billboards in particular, the environmental cost of billboards is surprisingly high, with one 48-sheet billboard using the same amount of energy as 30 average American households in a year.
Reddit users are happy to see the change, celebrating the return of standard architecture in place of the enormous advertising materials.
"I like it," comments another Reddit user. "Even the one decrepit building is preferable to the billboard that used to cover it up. There's history in the old and bastardly looking things."
"I live in Hawai'i and we have very strict billboard laws," adds another. "It was a culture shock the first time I went to the mainland and saw all the billboards everywhere."
"Finally, some wins," another adds.
Join our free newsletter for cool news and actionable info that makes it easy to help yourself while helping the planet.
Cool Picks
