Insider couldn’t help noticing an AdAge article titled Sao Paulo’s Ingenious Move For Return of Banned Billboards.  Sao Paulo is held up as a poster child by the anti-billboard crowd for banning billboards in 2007.  Now a pro-business mayor wants to auction off rights to put 32 13′ by 17′ digital billboards on bridges around the city.  One half of the time will be used for commercial messages.  One half of the time will be used for time and traffic news.  The mayor also announced he’d like to relax some billboard restrictions and use the money from new billboards to fund new public bathrooms.  The city also allows out of home advertising on bus shelters.

Insider’s take:  Yet another city decides to use it’s real estate to generate funds for city services by leasing land to billboard companies.  It strikes Insider as unfair, however, when a city bans billboards in order to create its own monopoly on the service.

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