How can illegal large outdoor advertisements stand for ten years?
Data shows that outdoor advertising is the earliest recorded form of advertising in the world. The earliest outdoor advertisement in China appeared in the wine shops during the Warring States period, the earliest vehicle-body advertisement was on the first tramway in Shanghai in 1908, and the earliest outdoor neon sign advertisement was on the roof of Shanghai's Great World in 1927... Today, despite newspapers, radio, television and other mass media having been deeply popularized, the emerging internet also has a strong momentum, but outdoor advertising still firmly occupies a place in the urban media field. Some say that outdoor advertising is the benchmark of urban prosperity, the barometer of the urban economy; others say it's the city's business card, a canvas showcasing the city's unique style; and there are those who say that by looking at a city's outdoor advertising, one can see its cultural heritage and spirit, as well as its management level. As an indispensable part of the urban landscape system, outdoor advertising has long surpassed simple commercial functions, and with the rapid development of cities, its urban functions have become increasingly significant. In earlier years, due to the lagging behind of relevant regulations and the lack of management, Harbin's outdoor advertising once became rampant and chaotic, especially in those few years when relevant departments deliberately banned outdoor advertising, the Harbin outdoor advertising market was almost in a state of anarchy. Driven by profit, various large and small advertising companies recklessly set up shop in every corner of the city, illegal advertising signs were everywhere, and one after another protected buildings were completely disfigured by illegal advertisements. To radically cure the increasingly rampant visual pollution and restore the city's fresh face, and also to reclaim the illegally occupied urban space resources, taking advantage of the opportunity presented by welcoming the Olympics and the Winter Universiade, a city-wide large-scale cleanup and rectification campaign of plaques and outdoor advertising began last year. In this unprecedented rectification campaign, the city in the eyes of citizens is beginning to look clearer, and outdoor advertising practitioners also see the spring of outdoor advertising thawing while watching. But amidst the joy, industry insiders still have doubts: outdoor advertising has been chaotic for so many years, which is not unrelated to the long-term ineffective supervision of relevant departments. Although from the strength of this demolition and renovation, we see the government's determination to rectify, but without a long-term management mechanism, without a standardized market system as a guarantee, how long will the results of this outdoor advertising rectification campaign last?
Event
On November 6, 2008, a large single-column billboard located in the green area beside the highway bridge in Daoli District was legally dismantled by the municipal urban management law enforcement bureau. According to the law enforcement officers, this billboard did not go through the relevant approval procedures and was considered an illegal setup. This billboard was 18 meters long, 6 meters wide, about six stories high, and in order to dismantle this huge object, the law enforcement officers had to hire dozens of professionals and use cranes and other large machinery equipment, with the entire dismantling work starting at 10 pm that evening until 6 am the next morning.
With the sudden disappearance of this huge object, citizens were talking. Most citizens applauded, Mr. Xu said: "Every day driving over the bridge, I always feel this billboard is obstructive, now it's removed, it looks much clearer." Some people regretted, Mr. Wang said: "Such a big sign, it must have cost a lot of money to set up, and it's time-consuming, labor-intensive, and costly to dismantle, too wasteful." When they heard it was an illegal advertisement, more citizens were puzzled: "In such an important location, setting up such a large sign is illegal, who has such audacity? Moreover, if it's illegal, it should have been removed long ago, why has no one dealt with it for all these years?"
Carrying the same question, the reporter investigated the origin of this billboard. Relevant personnel from the Municipal Urban Management Law Enforcement Bureau replied: We are only responsible for dismantling, and we don't know the origin of this sign. Relevant personnel from the Municipal Urban Management Bureau replied that this billboard was established earlier, when the Urban Management Bureau had not yet been established. According to our understanding, this sign originally had approval procedures, but it is unclear which department of the Municipal Affairs Bureau (the predecessor of the Urban Management Bureau) handled it. Later, this sign did not follow the regulations to undergo annual reviews, so it was determined to be an illegal advertisement. As for why this billboard has not been handled for so many years, the reasons are complex and difficult to explain clearly.
The reporter eventually found the "owner" of this billboard - the Aolian Advertising Company. The company's director, Li Shudian, said: "This advertisement was erected in 1998 by the Garden Advertising Company, and at that time, the approval procedures were handled by the garden department."
I rented this sign from the Garden Advertising Company and signed a five-year lease agreement. During this period, I'm not clear whether the Garden Advertising Company normally fulfilled the procedures. Later, the Garden Advertising Company went bankrupt, and when I went to the management department to handle the approval procedures, the department stopped handling them. This year, relevant departments approached me saying they wanted to remove this sign. Since it's for the overall development of the city, I have no objections, remove it if you must." Regarding Li Shudian's statement, the reporter confirmed it with some other advertisers. An advertiser, under the promise of not revealing his real name, frankly admitted: "Many years ago, the management department intended to reorganize the outdoor advertising market and stopped all outdoor advertising approvals. We advertisers had no choice but to take risks for survival. Those were the most chaotic years for outdoor advertising, where ads could be placed wherever desired. When law enforcement officers came to investigate, relationships could be used to pay a fine and mostly retain the advertisement. Even if it was non-negotiable, one could hold out for half a year until the enforcement process was completed, and the invested capital would have been recovered long ago."
Behind the scenes
The reporter's investigation revealed that the large single-column billboard in the green area beside the highway bridge being unattended for 10 years is just a microcosm of the current situation of Harbin's outdoor advertising, exposing many issues in the approval and management of urban outdoor advertising. According to relevant regulations, outdoor advertising within the road red line in Harbin is approved by the urban management department, while outside the red line, it is approved by the planning department. Among them, depending on the specific location of the advertisement, involving relevant departments such as water conservancy, environmental protection, bridges, etc., further approval from the relevant departments is required. The City Appearance Office of the Municipal Urban Management Bureau stated that they do not have a grasp on the general situation of how many outdoor advertisements exist in Harbin, or how many within their approval range are unauthorized. The Planning Bureau has a relatively clear understanding of building advertisements outside the road red line. At the beginning of this year, they counted that there were over 4000 outdoor building advertisements in Harbin, but less than 200 were approved.
Such an approval ratio is shocking. According to relevant personnel, the causes of this problem are numerous, such as advertising companies driven by profit setting up advertisements without approval, lack of unified planning in advertisement approval, etc. But one important reason is the lack of communication among multiple law enforcement departments with outdoor advertising approval and management authority, such as the Municipal Planning Bureau, the Municipal Urban Management Bureau, the Municipal Urban Management Law Enforcement Bureau, and the Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce, each conducting their own business approvals with insufficient contact and communication, lacking a unified platform to connect and check each other. Industry insiders and relevant management departments believe that besides, the issue of overstepping authority in approval by district urban management departments is also relatively prominent. During investigations and evidence collection by district law enforcement bureau personnel on illegal advertisement installation units, it was discovered that some advertisement installation units provided procedures of overstepped authority approval by district urban management departments, seriously interfering with the progress of cleaning up and rectifying outdoor advertisements. There are even some district urban management department law enforcement officers who substitute penalties for management, or even settle matters with money.
During interviews, the reporter learned that the approval and supervision system for outdoor advertising is extremely inefficient. For example, advertisements outside the road red line should be approved by the planning department, but regulation falls under the responsibility of the municipal urban management law enforcement department. For unapproved outdoor advertisements, the Planning Bureau cannot impose penalties, while the urban management law enforcement department often substitutes penalties for management, leading some advertising companies to believe that paying fines makes the advertisement legal. The disconnection between approval and penalty management causes merchants to ignore the existence of the approval process.
Compared to fines of tens of thousands of yuan, a large outdoor advertisement can generate hundreds of thousands of yuan annually, a calculation that advertisers can easily make. When the drive for profit leads to the畸形prosperity of outdoor advertising, what does our city lose besides its face?
Harbin's public urban space resources lose over 100 million yuan annually
Apart from the deep impression left on citizens by the large single-column advertisement previously standing at the entrance of the Highway Bridge, Harbin's streets and alleys are filled with various forms of outdoor advertisements, all driven by interests. Last year, when the Planning Bureau started to rectify outdoor advertisements, they discovered that there were nearly a thousand large building advertisements over 50 square meters in Harbin that were all unauthorized. None of these advertisements had gone through the planning department's approval, meaning no payment of public space resource occupation fees.
A large outdoor advertisement generates between several hundred thousand to millions of yuan in revenue per year for an advertising company. Unauthorized outdoor advertisements create huge profits for their owners, but why does the city waste such good spatial resources?
The reporter learned that in effectively utilizing urban public space resources, Harbin has started to take action in recent years. On December 1, 2006, Harbin issued the 'Harbin City Outdoor Advertising Setup Management Measures,' which stipulated that using urban space resources to set up outdoor advertisements requires paying a city space resource occupation fee according to regulations. Starting from April last year, led by the Planning Bureau, in conjunction with urban management, administrative law enforcement, and other relevant departments, the Harbin Outdoor Signage Advertising Facilities Cleanup and Rectification Leadership Group Office was established, carrying out clean-up and rectification work on outdoor advertisements on major city streets. To date, over 280 large unauthorized building advertisements have been organized for removal, nearly 400 advertisements have been rectified, and through rectification charges and market-oriented operations, government revenue of over 12 million yuan has been realized.
The government's actions indicate that the collection of space resource occupation fees in Harbin has begun. However, currently, only a small portion has been collected, with the majority still being lost. Harbin's large amount of municipal resources, such as roads, bridges, lamp posts, and green spaces, still occupy spatial resources free of charge. According to a survey, there are 944 building advertisements, 66 bridge advertisements, and a total of 3182 various forms of outdoor advertisement boards in 20 central areas of Harbin, including Airport Road, Edmonton Road, Train Station Square, Zhenyu Street, Hongjun Street, etc. However, only a few hundred have approval procedures. Conservatively estimated, the average monthly price of outdoor building and bridge advertisements is around 100 yuan per square meter. Calculating based on 944 advertisements covering an area of 36,920 square meters, the government loses over 20 million yuan in revenue annually. Including other types of outdoor advertisements, Harbin's public space resources lose over 100 million yuan in revenue annually.
"Unauthorized outdoor advertisements may be dismantled any day, earning money for as long as it hangs." Under this mentality, advertisers try to reduce production costs as much as possible, resulting in shoddy outdoor advertisements causing visual pollution, and occasional safety accidents like falling advertisements injuring pedestrians.
City space and visual interface polluted
Outdoor advertisements can reflect the development process of modern metropolises. Many citizens deeply understand this. When we arrive at an unfamiliar city, seeing the outdoor advertisements on the streets not only allows us to feel the economic development and urban management levels of the city, but we can also see the culture and essence of the city. Because outdoor advertisement landscapes are juxtaposed with buildings, transportation, greening, and other urban landscapes, together forming the geographical space and visual interface of the city, they are an important component of the city's visual environment, image, and information transmission system, serving as one of the city's identification coordinates.
However, since a large number of Harbin's outdoor advertisements are unauthorized, this has caused a relatively serious "large, messy, chaotic, poor" phenomenon in outdoor advertisements, threatening the city's visual environment with advertisement pollution. Since 2003, Harbin has been clearing unauthorized outdoor advertisements and reformulating relevant management methods, no longer approving new outdoor advertisements. The government hopes to wait for the original approved advertisements to expire before uniformly implementing new regulations for new outdoor advertisements. From 2003 to 2007, although Harbin basically did not approve outdoor advertisements, the Planning Bureau statistics show that the city added nearly a thousand large unauthorized building advertisements exceeding 50 square meters.
These unauthorized outdoor advertisements' owners all know that without approval, they might be dismantled by the management department at any time. With the attitude of making money while it lasts, they strive to cut costs and produce very crude advertisements. Some building surfaces in Harbin have almost become inferior picture advertisement walls, damaging the modern city's visual environment. Some protected buildings along the streets are covered with disorderly advertisements, severely affecting the presentation of architectural art. Relevant personnel from the planning department believe that the city's style, balance, rhythm, and aesthetic forms have been damaged, and architectural art has been seriously desecrated.
Due to the crudeness of unauthorized outdoor advertisements, incidents of windblown advertisements collapsing or falling and injuring pedestrians occur from time to time.
Unauthorized outdoor advertisements have become a new safety hazard in citizens' lives.
Outdoor advertisement governance needs three steps
● First step: Demolition and renovation concurrently, vigorously addressing chaos
Though it seems backward to rectify before planning, facing chaotic outdoor advertisements, treating chronic problems requires a strong medicine first.
In December 2006, the 'Harbin City Outdoor Advertising Setup Management Measures' was issued, and the municipal government and relevant departments began to legally clean up and rectify unauthorized advertisements and trial market-oriented operations. Early last year, the fifth special meeting of the municipal government reviewed and approved the 'Harbin City Urban Area Outdoor Advertising Joint Meeting System and Cleanup and Rectification Work Plan.' The Outdoor Signage Advertising Facilities Cleanup and Rectification Leadership Group started working last April, mainly focusing on the advertising rectification of the Qiulin-Museum area, the train station square vicinity, the highway bridge ramp vicinity, the Xinyang Square vicinity, the airport road, Jingwei Street, Youyi Road, and Zhongshan Road. They dismantled 7245 unauthorized and unsightly outdoor signs, lightboxes, and signs, removed 16,470 advertising facilities, cleared over 8400 advertisements posted within the storefronts of street-front businesses, and focused on removing rod advertisements in front of over 50 hotels and some key streets and locations. In the recently started 'Hundred-Day Battle' of outdoor signage and advertisement cleanup and rectification, focusing on venues and guest accommodations for the Winter Universiade, streets involved in the event, city welcome roads, major scenic spots, and bustling commercial areas, they aim to eliminate visual pollution. They dismantled over 40 large advertisements, over 1700 small advertisements, over 700 lightboxes, cleared over 4000 instances of random postings, dismantled over 260 illegally installed wall advertisements, and cleaned up over 2000 promotional items.
According to relevant personnel, the centralized cleanup and rectification activities of outdoor signage and advertisements have consistently adhered to the principle of concurrent demolition and renovation. Outdoor advertisements that do not meet the setup requirements are resolutely dismantled, while those that meet the conditions for setup but are unauthorized are urged to renovate and complete the procedures, incorporating them into daily management. Although the rectification work often encounters various resistances, it does not affect the government's determination to comprehensively clean up and rectify outdoor advertisements. Taking single-column advertisements as an example, most of them have a lot of historical legacy issues and complex backgrounds, making their removal highly resistant. Despite this, single-column advertisements that do not meet the setup requirements are included in the demolition plan and are being legally dismantled one by one. It is precisely this level of rectification intensity that effectively curbs the rampant trend of unauthorized outdoor advertisements.
● Second step: Market operation, government benefits
In this prolonged battle against unauthorized advertisements, city managers are gradually reclaiming the urban space occupied by advertisers for many years, and at the same time, they are seeing long-lost resource returns.
It is understood that last year, through the charging of building advertisement renovations, the government realized a revenue of 4.45 million yuan. This year, based on last year's foundation, efforts in charging for advertisement renovations and market-oriented operations of advertisement resources have been intensified, realizing a government revenue of 6.97 million yuan to date; among which, the revenue from building advertisement renovations is 3.2 million yuan, and the revenue from hanging building and municipal facility advertisements is 3.77 million yuan.
Next, Harbin will increase the rectification efforts on advertisements on main city streets, buildings, bridges, lamp posts, single columns, and signposts, continuing to promote the market-oriented operation of this part of the advertisement resources. For those whose approval period has not expired, they will be required to pay the space resource occupation fee and be retained until the end of the approval period (fees calculated from December 1, 2006), and after the expiration, they will be recovered and organized by the City Investment Company for "recruitment, auction, and listing." At the same time, the relocation and dismantling of single-column advertisements within the second ring road in the city and along the airport road will be implemented, relocating single-column advertisements that have been approved but have exceeded their term, and dismantling all unauthorized ones to purify the urban landscape environment, striving to fully complete the task by the end of the year. Furthermore, the innovative and distinctive information cylinder advertisements, which can fully display local culture, will be actively promoted. Plans are to install approximately 500 information cylinder advertisements on both sides of the main streets and around commercial and leisure squares to raise more funds for city construction.
● Third step: Scientific planning, long-term management
If forced demolition according to law is the strong medicine for treating symptoms, then scientific planning is the good prescription for curing the root cause.
Only by improving many shortcomings in previous management and establishing a strict long-term management mechanism can outdoor advertisements truly move onto the path of healthy development. During the interview, reporters learned that the reason for such forceful measures in this outdoor signage and advertisement rectification work is due to the emphasis of municipal leadership and cooperation among multiple departments. One staff member revealed that this joint office organization is only a temporary institution. Although there is no specific final deadline for the rectification work, there will come a day when the rectification ends, and the joint group will eventually dissolve. He said that at that time, each department will manage their own segment, inevitably leading to issues of independent governance and lack of close contact and communication. Therefore, to truly put the outdoor advertisement industry on the road of "openness and marketization," the government must streamline management relationships, standardize management procedures, simplify approval processes, strengthen inter-departmental connections, form a relatively smooth and reasonable management mechanism, strengthen enforcement and management, clarify regulatory responsibilities, and prevent the phenomena of "substituting penalties for approvals and substituting penalties for management" from continuing to occur.
Relevant individuals also believe that in the approval, bidding, and auction of outdoor advertisements, planning should precede the acquisition of operating rights. Only through unified layout, scientific planning, and personalized settings can outdoor advertisements harmonize with the urban environment and beautify the city. In previous management, many departments often overlooked this important link, and if this issue is not properly resolved, visual pollution is inevitable.
Label: Outdoor Photorealism
Editor: Haward
2008-11-30 23:54:40