Upset that advertisers weren’t complying with regulations, Sao Paulo’s major banned outdoor ads.  Nearly four months later, the 11 million person city is nearly baron of commercial ads.  One Flikr user is creating a portfolio of the abandoned billboard structures. 

Regarding the ban, one Sao Paulo columnist told IHT that the law is “a rare victory of the public interest over private, of order over disorder, aesthetics over ugliness, of cleanliness over trash.”  However, advertisors and business groups are clearly feeling the pain.  Marcel Solimeo, the Chief Economist of Sao Paulo’s Commercial Association claims, “This is a radical law that damages the rules of a market economy and respect for the rule of law. We live in a consumer society and the essence of capitalism is the availability of information about products.”