Anti-signage backlash hits Shanghai
The building of new billboard advertising in Shanghai was halted last Thursday and ongoing construction was stopped. The move is part of an anti-advertising campaign which includes digital signage among its targets and has the support of a large portion of the public. 
The government said the ban was intended to prepare for the upcoming Beijing Olympics in August, which will include events in Shanghai.
The official China Business News publication cited the Shanghai City Appearance and Environmental Sanitation Administration Bureau as saying that the North Bund area – an upmarket part of the city facing the waterfront – will have only nine billboards permitted, and added that all others will be torn down before the end of July.
Meanwhile, a guideline to supervise the city's outdoor-advertising facilities will be completed by June, the government's notice said.
This latest development comes after an upsurge of anti-signage feeling in Shanghai, where the opinion is widely held that the city is smothered in excessive outdoor advertising – Shanghai even has floating advertising sites on barges (our picture shows one owned by Focus Media). There have been recent reports on China blogs of digital signage being defaced by vigilantes.
Height limit
Shanghai started to dismantle downtown billboards more than 60 meters above the ground in October and banned advertisements from being posted on pillars along elevated roads across the city, according to previous reports. No advertising is allowed on top of residential buildings more than 60 meters high between the Inner Ring Elevated Road and the Middle Ring Elevated Road.
According to Caijiing, a reliable independent magazine, Shanghai government spokesman Chen Qiwei on 30 April said firmly there was too much outdoor advertising in Shanghai and new regulations are needed.
Advertising companies, however, were taken aback at the ban. Kelvin Fan of Shanghai-based Shanghai Bestknown Advertising said: “I was shocked, to say the least. We usually receive notice two to three months prior to any new policy change.”
Separately, Moscow's city government last month said it would move to prohibit outdoor advertising in historically significant areas.
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