Tarique A Bhat
The mercantile society that destroys all human relationships, professional relationships, health, the environment is trying to get rid of Billboard blight.
Without any high profile industry and business, here in Kashmir advertising aggression has off late started in our picturesque city. Public visual space is rapidly becoming commercial space.
It seems many of us, myself included, have issues we fail to see or choose not to look at. Ads on TV and magazines, however abrasive, affect a specific group of people. Outdoor advertisements have now gone beyond the physical spaces they occupy. Agreed, Srinagar Muncipal Corporation generates some revenue by this, but they pollute the visual environment and infiltrate people’s subconscious. Outdoor ads, what you consider public property, assaults everyone in its vicinity. This visual debauchery impairs our view and our perception of road traffic sense. Sometimes it limits our capacity to dream. It is commercial exploitation of public space and is all the more unacceptable as the landscapes are our assets.
One doesn’t want to abolish advertising, but it should be presented in a way that develops harmony with our green ambience. The fact of the matter is attention needs to be drawn to this issue. What’s happening is straightforward: some people have obtained permits for non-illuminated computer-printed vinyl signs affixed to the side of buildings, are signs, which they can obtain for pretty much any wall, very cheap to execute and then erect vinyl signs because they can’t profitably operate modern electronic signs on those sites. What has helped them most is Municipal Licensing, and Development Authority, which is supposed to promptly inspect newly constructed signs, but has allowed these permits to go un-inspected for years.
In most mediums, like television, radio, magazines, newspapers, the viewer has the option to turn off the advertisement, flip the page, and generally make a conscious decision. As outdoor advertising stands now, the public has little options and are often forced to focus their attentions on private messages and commercial concerns.
We lack place signs which are very crucial as these are about the place they adorn. Billboard advertising is just the opposite. It is placeless; it disorients. In small sizes let us display boards with our socio-cultural and civic messages. Sheikh ul Alam (RA) shryukhs and lale Waakh of Lala Ded .It’s a novel idea and one which can make you imagine how other uses of our public environment might suite the city better without directly changing any of the more rigid power structures which exist in a commodity based market system. Countries which started this nuisance long ago are campaigning against it now and we have embarked on this tested path. They have initiated acts of public intervention against outdoor advertising. There is a massive argument for the reduction of advertising in our public spaces because it is a tourist destination and we need grand visual elegance teeming with life affirming qualities that stand out against the background of the city.
We are turning over the captive eyes of hapless commuters for a handful of revenue.
