HOARDINGS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 4 February 1930, Page 7

HOARDINGS

CAMPAIGN AGAINST THEM

DECISIONS REACHED IN ENGLAND

Examples of disfiguring advertisements in town and countryside, together with' suggestions for the improvement of outdoor advertising, were given by Harrv H. Peach, hon. secretary of the' Council for the Preservation of Rural England, in a lantern lecture before the Royal Society of Arts recently. Sir-Lawrence Weaver presided. Among -rural advertisements, Mr Peach gave instances of enamel signs nailed on trees, barns, bridges* at petrol stations; and disfiguring famous beauty spots. The moment one sign* went up the flock of enamel sign harpies pounced on the site. Fly-billing was another nuisance. , . • * "One large firm' who stopped it on grounds of decency said that by giving up this practice they saved money for decent advertising. The practice had been proved useless," said Mr Peach. "I expect a good deal of this country advertising would really come under the same category if the truth were known." Disfiguring country advertisements could be kept down if the Advertisements Regulation Act were more strictly enforced by the County C6uncils. Regarding .petrol advertisements,, Mr Peach referred' to one large firm which had decided not to issue any more signs. As the firm had cancelled 11,000 agreements, had removed some thousands of signs, and were continuing the campaign it must be presumed that sales had not suffered.'

The two most serious menaces to the amenities of our towns were the great signs erected, on the fronts of buildings, and the enamel, signs on walls. "I am surprised," Mr Peach declared, "that architects'all over the country have not been up in arms about this, and demanded legislation to prevent the spoiling of the fronts of buildings. What encouragement is there for any man to build, decently under such circumstances?" Methods adopted in Germany and Switzerland suggested improvements which might be effected in British outdoor advertising. In German towns advertisements were displayed on pillars,, where the visitors could find all theatre and concert notices and other announcements in an orderly form. In the main streets of Zurich posters were restricted to a. uniform size of 4ft by 2ft 9in and in the main were' in one row only. The Empire Marketing Board had set a similar example in this country. Vacant land or other spaces might be allotted in every largo town where orderly advertising would be regulated in such a way as to be really serviceable to the advertiser and not unpleasant to the general public. The advertiser must be made to leave alone the facades of buildings, station fronts and bridges. "Outdoor advertisements is only one way of selling goods," concluded Mr Peach. "The outdoor advertiser has his place, but when all is said and done the real place for advertisements is the Press."