I can't believe that i've not heard about this until now, but as of 1 Jan 2007, the Brazillian city of Sao Paulo has taken down all it's billboards, bus ads, and more.  It's a move that has outraged business people, but left a large percentage of it's 11 million population free from visual polution.

The International Herald Tribune has an interesting article definitely worth reading, which looks at some differing opinions.  There is one statment that really annoyed me, and that was the advertising and business groups saying:

"free expression will be inhibited, jobs will be lost and consumers will have less information on which to base purchasing decisions."

what an absolute load of rubbish.  This is not free speech for starters, and if it was, then let's rally for graffiti and the like to be publicly acceptable forms of self expression.  The second thing, which really stinks, is the comment on consumers! As a consumer, my purchasing decisions are based on advertising, but not positively.  These, and so many other forms of advertising are invasive, and can sway me and so many others, to buy crap that we really do not need.

While i believe in freedom of speech, i also believe in the freedom to walk down the street and not be invaded with what i should be wasting my next pay cheque on.

Check out some recent photos of what the city looks like now.  It's really quite amazing.
[via kottke]