City lacking direction to tackle ad ‘road signs’
Print Edition
ROAD officials have admitted that existing penalties are not deterring companies from putting up official-looking road signs giving directions to their businesses.
This came after a sign for Will’s Gym — with white letters on a blue background like official city road signs — was removed from the junction of downtown Ruijin Road No. 1 and Yan’an Road, following media reports.
But the Shanghai Road Administration Bureau said this was just one of 2,500 signs removed so far this year, with a similar number spotted and not yet dealt with.
Bureau official Dong Hui said this form of advertising is strictly prohibited, but stopping companies is difficult.
“After spotting a sign, we get in touch with the company featured and demand they remove the sign,” she said.
“If the company fails to do this, we remove the sign.”
Companies featuring on these illegal signs can be fined up to 5,000 yuan (US$799) under city regulations. But Dong admits that this rarely happens.
“If the companies don’t admit that they put up the signs, they won’t receive any punishment,” she explained.
The Greenery and Public Sanitation Bureau of Huangpu District, which removed the Will’s Gym sign, told Shanghai Daily yesterday that it hadn’t fined the company because “it’s not within our power.”
A whole industry exists around illegal road signs, with companies offering a service making signs and replacing removed ones.
“When a sign worth thousands of yuan is taken down, they just make another one, put it up and keep raking in business,” Dong said.
A manager, surnamed Song, from Qiandu Advertising, one of the many agencies in the city which create road sign advertising, said they offer this service.
“We make a 2-meter by 1-meter sign for 25,000 yuan and guarantee that for a year it will always be on display on a lamppost, tree trunk or pole of your choice,” he said.
Song said the company has “the blessing” of urban management forces which supervise road signs and enforce the regulations.
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