[dexen]

It is sad to see the correct reply grayed out. This kind of regulation is known to breed corruption & abuse, tilting the field heavily towards the highest spenders. Can only be enacted when ideology trumps well established knowledge & experience.

[mike_hearn]

Zürich resident here. In this specific case the abuse is even pretty openly stated :(

> The Supreme Court’s ruling cements a decision to remove more than three-fourths of its once-standing 172 billboards from the town, keeping the remainder available for culture and sports ads.

By "culture and sports ads" they surely mean adverts by the government for its own subsidized services. Local government is a huge spender on billboard advertising around here, often for its own state run sports or events (invariably stuff that's popular with lefty civil service types like obscure dance performances).

Lately they also love to paint trains and trams in garish colors, in an open advert for diversity ideology:

https://www.bahnonline.ch/27379/mit-dem-zvv-gemeinsam-vorwae...

Die Farben und Formen des neuen visuellen Auftritts widerspiegeln die Buntheit und Diversität des gesamten ZVV-Netzes.

... and they don't seem to have a problem either with all the posters that get glued everywhere advertising May Day, Feminists for Anarchism and so on.

The idea cantonal governments have a problem with "visual pollution" is kind of absurd, really. If that's actually the motivation then step one would be to stop buying billboard space with taxpayer money, stop flooding the city with rainbows, clean up all the pro-Gaza graffiti and go entirely without any of that for a few years. Once they've proven they have the discipline to clean up the sort of visual pollution they themselves tend to like, then they might have a moral leg to stand on for banning other forms of advertising.

[izacus]

This has to be one of the stranges political segway rants I've seen on this site and that's saying something.

We can't ban billboards on Bahnhofstrasse and rest of the city just because you've seen some graffiti supporting Palestine? What?

[lifestyleguru]

I love the idea of acoustic and visual hygiene, fighting the acoustic and visual pollution. The flaw is in human nature and the attitude "but _we_ are allowed, _our_ case is different". If the enforcers will be local authorities, they will be unable to resist displaying out their message. If there is at least one CHF and one person in the promotion and marketing department, the idea will pop out. Hey look at the bright side, at least they didn't cover the tram's windows!

[dexen]

Interesting, thank you. Especially the point about government being a huge spender where it has reduced regular commerce.