Ways of Seeing Advertising: Law and the Making of Visual Commercial Culture

This article examines the role of law in shaping visual commercial culture by telling the story of the hoarding—the outdoor advertising surface for posters—in the formative decades of mass advertising in Britain, from roughly 1840 to 1914. The hoarding emerged in this period as a distinct property and a focal point of contestation over ways of seeing. Its meaning as a visual environment hinged on questions, which are still resonant today, about the interaction between economic and aesthetic categories: advertising and art, capital and beauty, commerce and culture. Historical actors—among them the organized billposting trade, the National Society for Checking the Abuses of Public Advertising, a civil society organization that took up the cause of protecting public spaces from advertising, governmental and local lawmakers, and citizens—enlisted private and public legal means to respond to these questions. This analysis draws on an expansive interdisciplinary archive to trace them. As it shows, legal means were engaged in cultural demarcation or what Thomas Gieryn has aptly termed boundary work. In establishing cultural boundaries, law defined the terms on which advertising became an integral element of daily visual experience, at once omnipresent and derided. The legal history of advertising thus offers deep insights for visual legal studies.

Socioeconomic patterning of food and drink advertising at public transport stops in Edinburgh, UK

Objective: Outdoor advertisements for food and drink products form a large part of the food environment and they disproportionately promote unhealthy products. However, less is known about the social patterning of such advertisements. The main aim of this study was to explore the socioeconomic patterning of food and drink advertising at bus stops in Scotland’s capital city, Edinburgh. Design: Bus stop advertisements were audited to identify food/drink adverts and classify them by food/drink category (i.e. ‘advert category’). This data was then linked to area-based deprivation and proximity measures. Neighbourhood deprivation was measured using the bus stop x/y co-ordinates, which were converted to postcodes to identify the matching 2012 deprivation level via the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD). Distance to schools and leisure centres were also collected using location data. Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) and linear regression analyses were used to assess associations between the promotion of advert categories and deprivation and proximity to schools/leisure centres, respectively. Setting: Edinburgh city, United Kingdom Results: 561 food/drink advertisements were identified across 349 bus stops, with eight advertisement categories noted and included in the final analysis, including alcohol, fast food outlets and confectionary. The majority of adverts were for ‘unhealthy’ food and drink categories, however there was no evidence for any socioeconomic patterning of these advertisements. There was no evidence of a relationship between advertisements and proximity to schools and leisure centres. Conclusions: While there is no evidence for food and drink advertising being patterned by neighbourhood deprivation, the scale of unhealthy advertising is an area for policy evaluations and interventions on the control of such outdoor advertising.

The Effect Of Display Brightness On Visual Function For Young And Old Drivers

Nowadays outdoor advertising displays have become popular. Bright displays near the roads could cause drivers to experience disability or discomfort glare, especially at night. Disability glare increases with age, but discomfort glare thresholds are independent of age. The aim of the study was to assess a luminance level of displays, which causes glare for younger and older subjects. 24 young subjects age of 20 to 24 years and 13 older subjects age of 55 to 69 years participated in the study. The task was by using the method of adjustment to find out the acceptable level of display brightness when the recognition of high (>90%) contrast objects was comfortable. Measurements were done in a photopic and mesopic lighting conditions. Results showed that discomfort glare were larger in mesopic than in photopic lighting conditions (p < 0.001) for both age groups. Preferred display brightness in both lighting conditions did not significantly differ between age groups (p > 0.05). We can conclude that discomfort glare thresholds for displays with textual elements are independent of age.

Road Intersection as a Public Space and Venue for Advertisements in an Urban Setting

Advertising media uses a lot of public space as a place to advertise which can reduce the function of public space in urban areas. This study aims to determine the use of urban space as a medium for outdoor advertising that interrupts and reduces the function of space. This study uses a qualitative approach with descriptive data analysis methods. The four intersections on Jalan Raya Dalung have interrupted the function of public spaces, including functions as pedestrians (pedestrian paths), telajakan (as an element of reforestation), protecting the environment, and as borders. Inappropriate placement of advertising media creates a chaotic impression and visual chaos.

Feeling a historic city: Porto landscape through the eyes of residents and visitors

Purpose This paper aims to monitor the urban landscape through the perceptions of residents and visitors, identifying features that cause visual impacts and providing insights for landscape management decision-makers. Captured impressions about the city whilst moving around are important to assess the satisfaction of city residents and city visitors through key elements, such as directional signage, outdoor advertising, restaurants’ outdoor terrace furniture, urban furniture, green spaces, traffic, cleaning, pedestrian areas, visitor flow and conservation of monuments, museums and buildings. Design/methodology/approach A survey was applied in the historical Porto city centre (Portugal) to understand residents’ and visitors’ perceptions of the city landscape and assess the differences between these two groups. Cronbach’s alpha was used to assess the reliability of the constructs (dimensions) of urban landscape. Non-parametric Mann-Whitney test was used to find significant differences in the perceptions of residents and visitors. Findings The results suggest significant differences in the perceptions. Residents value more two constructs of the landscape (heritage conservation and transport mobility) whilst visitors value more other two (pedestrian mobility and aesthetic quality). It is showed that residents have a strong sense of place and are concerned with the conservation of historical heritage. Visitors are more concerned with dimensions intrinsically related to tourism. Originality/value This research allowed to fill a gap found in the literature, namely, the importance of considering the perceptions of different actors in the urban landscape monitoring. These results are an important contribution for local authorities to understand the value of urban landscape elements from the perspective of residents and visitors. This study opened the possibility of comparing the results from different historical cities centres.

Promotional training through outdoor advertisements and digital media publications

SD Muhammadiyah Kalangan is located in Baturetno Village, Banguntapan, Bantul, Yogyakarta Special Region. The location of SD Muhammadiyah Kalangan is actually strategic because it is on the border of Bantul Regency, Yogyakarta City and Sleman Regency, however the competition is very tight. Within a 5-kilometer radius, there are at least 7 schools, both public and private elementary schools. The location of SD Muhammadiyah Kalangan is far from the highway, so the name of the school is not known to the public. In online mass media, the name SD Muhammadiyah Kalangan also appears very rarely. In fact, the publication of school activities in online mass media is important. Based on these two issues, this service program will focus on increasing school promotion through outdoor advertising and publications in the mass media. Activities are carried out with advertising workshops and digital media publications. This activity produces school advertisements in the form of outdoor advertisements and publications in digital media as school promotion media.