adminthe eye.
These billboards feature anything from colourful products, delectable food, beautiful women to church conferences; all wrapped in catchy legends and other sales language.
Now with the ever-increasing congestion at major intersections that present a captive audience, the billboards are generally crammed at these areas.
Yet beyond the colour, the silky language and, ultimately, the money gleaned from consumers is a danger to the environment.
When, in 2009, the Environment Minister Francis Nhema came out against the erection of huge and towering gantry structures that have been identifiable with some major corporate organisations, he described them as ugly.
These steel hulks straddle over roads that lead into Harare.
Minister Nhema said there was nothing modern about them as they had a negative impact on the environment and natural beauty of Harare, the Sunshine City.
It is two years now since Minister Nhema made that statement, which was laced with the threat that the Harare City Council could “run a loss when we order them to remove them (the guntrees)”.
Nothing has happened and the gantries, along with smaller billboards, still pose an environmental concern.
“They disturb the skyline,” bemoans Mr Steady Kangata communications chief at the Environmental Management Authority.
“Take the Harare Polytechnic one (corner Prince Edward and Samora Machel Avenue) for example. When standing at Jameson Hotel you can’t see beyond it.
“It is an impediment,” he said.
He said that when considering environmental impact, authorities do not look at the biophysical environment only but also the impact on the social environment as well.
Roadside billboards are a danger in waiting, especially as presently constituted.
“In the event of an accident, the steel frame can cause fatalities,” explains Mr Kangata.
He related to an example in which before the erection of a gantry, a mishap would result in a car driving straight into a perimeter fence with little consequence.
However, he reasoned, a similar mishap now would see the car ramming into the steel frame of the straddling monster.
“They should be made from collapsible materials which do not pose a danger in case of accidents.
“It is the norm especially in developed countries,” said Mr Kangata.
He said the erection of billboards is one of the activities that are required by law to carry out Environmental Impact Assessments.
The EIA study the negative and the positive impact of a project on the environment, seeking to minimise the former while enhancing the latter.
However, Mr Kangata could not be drawn to comment on whatever happened to Minister Nhema’s reservations about the gantries.
He urged advertising companies and agencies to pursue more environmentally-friendly alternatives. Zimbabwe could as well follow global trends that are increasingly being revolted by billboards.
In United States of America, for example, a number of states have either banned billboards or prevented the erection of new ones.
They argue that “an un-marred landscape promotes tourism”.
One journal underlines just how offensive billboards could be.
It says: “Roadside billboards are visually offensive and aggressive advertising tools that mar natural landscapes and urban beauty.
“Our national roadways no longer showcase America the Beautiful, but rather America: The Land of Excess Signage . . . the open landscapes of our great American highways need to be protected from visual clutter.
“There is a saying that beauty is its own reason for being. Preserving the beauties of the open highway is reason enough for wanting to eradicate roadside advertising. Billboards are ugly. Billboards constitute visual clutter that complicates life. At least on the freeway, people should be able to escape the onslaught of mass advertising.”
The writer describes billboards as “towering steel skeletons”.
The writer notes that “the most popular destinations in the country are places that have no billboards.” These concerns could be applied to any city, anywhere in the world.
In Greece, ahead of the 2004 Summer Olympics, the ancient city of Athens which was the host, embarked on a successful four-year project demolishing the majority of rooftop billboards to beautify the city for the tourists.
Rooftops in the city are said to have grown so thick with billboards that it was difficult to see its famous architecture.
Naturally, there was resistance from advertisers and building owners but the call for the restoration of the aesthetic beauty of the historic city was stronger; and succeeded.
Closer home, in South Africa, the government recognises the need to balance outdoor advertising and the preservation of the environment.
The 1998 South African Manual for Outdoor Advertising Control says: “Outdoor advertising and information transfer fulfills an essential function in modern society . . . However, if outdoor advertising is not controlled properly it could have a very real impact on tourism resources and the human living environment, as was experienced in countries such as the United States of America.
“Most advertisements are aimed at the road user and may therefore also impact on the road environment.
“Control measures are therefore needed to ensure that road environments will be conducive to safe and pleasant driving.”
Most importantly, the policy is underpinned by the need to secure what it calls the “visual environment”.
Reads the manual: “The visual environment also forms a backdrop to most other tourist activities such as game watching, touring, entertainment, shopping and sport.
“The visual environment can be seen as the fabric that gives meaning and substance to any tourism experience.
“Each country, area, city or town has its own unique visual character and atmosphere which plays an important role in the quality of any tourist experience.
“In South Africa, with its richness and diversity of landscapes and cultures, it is of the utmost importance that the element of local character should be strengthened and enhanced when and wherever possible.”
Areas of regulation include urban freeways and street corners. SMOAC facilitates the processing and approval/disapproval of outdoor advertising applications by the relevant controlling authority, can be used by prospective advertisers to plan their advertising strategy, facilitate pre-planning on the part of controlling authorities and provide a reference document for dealing with outdoor advertising issues.
It provides advice and assistance for marketers and advertisers in preparing specific applications, and guidelines which will enable the controlling authorities to evaluate applications on their merits and make informed decisions based on the guidelines.
It encourages standardisation of assessment criteria and uniformity in the application of these criteria and unification of legislation.
The Harare City Council could be heading towards such a dispensation.
In an interview, spokesperson Mr Leslie Gwindi told The Herald that the city would soon launch a policy on roadside advertising.
He said advertising, much of it illegal, has been “haphazard”.
“The new policy which is being finalised by our planning department will look at such areas as the environmental impact.
“We are also compiling a database of advertising agencies and we urge businesses to check with us whether companies they contract will be in compliance with our regulations,” Mr Gwindi said.
The city has begun pulling down some billboards pending the operationalisation of the new policy.
There could be a way to capture the imagination of consumers and still preserve the environment. Some companies are now pursuing “greener” advertising.
This includes becoming more energy-efficient by using solar and wind energy instead of electricity.
Some companies are reportedly trying to replace paper panels with a thin, lighter-weight sheet of material that hangs to a billboard, eliminating the need for glues.
Mr Victor Shambare of a large outdoor advertising company that has 42 000 sites across the country “recognises that our corporate responsibility is to minimise the potential for causing harm to the environment in
all aspects of our activities” and strive to build a good, brand based on sustainable business practices and improve our environmental stewardship.
The company is introducing a “revolutionary” new advertising product that is bio-degradable, is made of recycled textiles and will not be harmful to the environment.
It is also cheaper than normal PVC flex face material generally used in the outdoor advertising industry.
He said: “We are also continually pursuing eco-friendly alternatives for our printing and production processes.”
The company is also involved in recycling of billboard flex material “which offer environmentally aware advertisers the opportunity to promote their causes.”
Other interventions include the roll-out of digital networks which sees the eradication of the printing process and the use of solar energy to illuminate selected sites.
The company, Mr Shambare said, is contributing positively and proactively to the massive power shortages by having installed timer switches on a large number of their illuminated outdoor advertising structures.
“The illumination is shut down from 1 am to 5 am in the morning when most consumers are off the roads,” he explained.
Online Reporter