Dubai considers tighter rules for out-of-home ad sites
Dubai is poised to impose restrictions on outdoor advertising, becoming the latest in a series of cities cracking down on rampant and uncontrolled development of billboard sites.
According to local reports, a maximum size of ten by 30m will be brought into force for roadside locations, although larger ads will be permitted in open spaces and on desert sites. Rooftop ad installations will be limited to two per building.
Other rules will cover the size of text and the distance between ads.
The draft regulations – expected to apply to digital as well as non-digital out-of-home advertising – will also require that content includes text in Arabic and complies with local religious and cultural standards.
“We are trying to remove all those ugly huge ads on scaffoldings,” Dubai Municipality’s head of advertising Mona Khamis was quoted as saying.
“[Advertisers] have to obey our traditional, cultural and religious values in the artwork, especially when portraying women,” said Khamis, adding: “We want to create a balance between customer demands and the multinational environment in the Arabic city.”
The Middle East, and particularly the United Arab Emirates (UAE) cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, have recently been cited as important growth areas for digital out-of-home.
Indeed, Khamis was speaking as the Sign and Graphic Imaging Middle East expo took place in Dubai.
The UAE itself accounts for just over a third of all advertising expenditure in the Gulf states.
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