The most idiotic advertising ever

While I was blogging the other day about Sao Paulo banning all outdoor advertising starting tomorrow, because of the out-of-control visual pollution brought by the building-sized billboards and more, in my neck of the woods - the Swiss Alps - they were busy installing the most asinine giant advertising I've ever seen: the projection against the north wall of the Piz Corvatsch of a 163x163 meters logo celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Bergbahnen, the grouping of companies that manages the ski slopes and cable cars and skilifts in the Engadin region around St Moritz:

The logo, at an altitude of 3000 meters, measures 26596 square meters (or almost four football fields), and is projected from across the valley, almost 1 km away, every night from 6pm to midnight.

Light pollution has been a matter of controversy before in Engadin, where starry winter nights can be amazing and tourists complained, but apparently that didn't deter the brilliant minds at Bergbahnen - nor the bureaucrats who delivered the permits - from this senseless incursion into one of the most spectacular mountain ranges in the Alps. That the idea came to people who make a living thank to that beauty - tourism is the only industry in the region - is bad enough. Worse: they are planning to keep it there for six weeks. Unless the protests, which are becoming many and vocal, succeed in taking it down before.

Comments

[missy]

a very good commercial idea, thank you for the inspiration.

[Peter Warne]

Unfortunately, I can see the meeting(s) that approved this idea. I have been in too many. And at no stage did anyone ask the question that needs to be asked of all corporate good ideas: if someone else had this idea, would you like it as much? Well, boss? Would you?

[david spring]

a few years ago, i wrote a story about the fact that you cannot find a single place in switzerland where the darkness of the night is not spoilt by artificial lights. sorry, it's in french, but it's a multicultural world ;-)

La nuit n'existe plus

Malheur aux poètes et aux vampires. L'obscurité naturelle ne règne plus nulle part en Suisse, affirme l'association Dark-Sky. Leur suggestion: s'installer à 2000 mètres d'altitude, à Tanalp (Obwald), pour observer la Voie lactée dans de bonnes conditions. Les éclairages publics polluent de plus en plus nos nuits, comme le montre une simulation de l'illumination nocturne des cieux helvétiques (http://www.savethenight.eu/Light%20Pollution%20in%20Europe.html). Même l'observatoire valaisan de St-Luc est gêné par le halo provenant des villes du bord du Léman.

«Le premier instrument de l'astronome, c'est sa voiture», s'inquiète Christophe Martin-Brisset, président de l'Association nationale pour la protection du ciel nocturne (ANPCN), en France. Le constat est identique dans toute l'Europe.

Le dommage n'est pas subi uniquement par les amoureux des étoiles. La faune de la nuit, papillons et oiseaux, en tête, souffre également de ces perturbations, souvent inutiles. «Le moindre monument aux morts est éclairé», ajoute Christophe Martin-Brisset. La dépense énergétique résultante est énorme. Se basant sur des sources gouvernementales américaines, l'ANPCN estime que le coût annuel mondial de l'éclairage artificiel nocturne représente 260 milliards de francs. Sachant que «30 à 40 % de la lumière» est dirigée vers le haut, le gaspillage donne le vertige.

[David Mantripp]

Well, the fuss has gone mainstream:

http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/front/detail/Controversy_over_giant_screen_in_Engadine.html?siteSect=105&sid=7404332&cKey=1167993014000

Hopefully this idiocy will stop now.

[David Mantripp]

Oh, and perhaps we could cut out the night time illumination of every "Santa Maria dell'Autostrada" church in Ticino, whilst we're at it. And the spotlight on the waterfall at Biasca - is it really so necessary ? And.... well, we could be here all night.

Tout a fait d'accord avec toi, david spring