What would a world without billboards and physical advertisements look like? It would look weird. See for yourself. Sao Paulo, Brazil passed a law banning all outside advertisements by a 45-1 vote.
Max Kalehoff via his OnlineSpin blog brought this story to my attention. Walking through the city [I did this virtually via Tony de Marco's flickr photos, 'see for yourself' above.] empty billboard frames and newly painted buildings are immediately eye catching. We are accustomed to outdoor advertising so much that without it their is a void. I wonder if it should be filled with something? Maybe art?
I know our good friend, Andy Warhol, would not be satisfied with such a legislation. In fact, I think he would be the person to start a revolution in advertising, AGAIN! Paintings up on billboard frames, not to advertise a product [albeit the artist's product, again Warholian consumerism].
The funny thing is I’ve had Warhol on my mind for the past couple days. It is interesting how this story came up just in the nic of time. Warholian consumerism, mentioned above, is fitting for an advertising based artistic movement in this decade. Wow, the possibilities! A giant billboard of "Starry Night" replaces the huge MTV logo, pretty soon the internet would follow suit as it usually does. Web2.0 styled logos replaced by watercolor, ink, pencil, and lacquer artwork. I should stop kidding myself, we are in the middle of an artistic movement; the popularity of web2.0 stylings and blog layouts is rising on the web. I should know that logos, digital graphics, banners– these are all art; some of this art is mine 
Wow, I seem to have went full circle in this post. Anyways just check out Max’s article.
Thanks for pointing to my story. Not too many college kids are that tuned into current advertising industry developments like this, let alone further pontificate on their own blog. If you dig my stuff, I author http://www.attentionmax.com, in addition to my weekly column at MediaPost.