Description

Who: Municipality of Grenoble, France

What: The French city of Grenoble has become the first in Europe to ban all commercial street advertising and replace the content with trees and community noticeboards.

When: 2014


In September 2014, Grenoble announced not to renew its call for tenders for their municipal billboards, banning outdoor advertising effectively in June 2015. 2.051 square meters of advertising panels have dissapeared. This is the first big city in Europe to take this step.

The city is determined to clean up Grenoble's advertising pollution once and for all, to guarantee freedom of reception and to protect children. Eric Piolle, Mayor of Grenoble, said: 'The municipality is choosing to free Grenoble's public space from advertising by developing spaces for public expression.' The city of Grenoble is additionally taking action by replacing (some of) its ads with trees.

Non-municipal billboards still exist

The association Résistance à l'agression publicitaire (R.A.P.) congratulates the Grenoble municipality on making the city “less aggressive”. Advertising aggression is declining, but is still present in other forms (private billboards, street furniture, passenger shelters, etc.). The removal of municipal billboards does not mean the removal of “non-municipal” billboards, but the first step has been taken.

RLP reform

Eric Piolle, before becoming mayor of Grenoble, had responded on behalf of the “Rassemblement Grenoble Une ville pour tous” list to the R.A.P. association's questionnaire to candidates in the municipal elections, as part of Opération Ville propre.

He had already expressed his desire to ensure respect for freedom of reception and to put an end to advertising aggression wherever it occurs. “By reforming the RLP, we want to ban 4x3m billboards, and gradually reduce advertising in public spaces”. In addition, Eric Piolle has stated that he will work to ban advertising screens, limit the size of posters to 50×70 cm, and reduce light pollution.

Political courage needed

R.A.P. calls the French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy to follow this example and show political courage, especially in the Grenelle du Paysage dossier, where JC Decaux literally wrote a policy decree tailor-made for its street furniture. R.A.P. calls on:

  • The government to change the law to sharply limit outdoor advertising: No posters larger than 50x70cm, with a limit of 2 m2 per panel and with a number of panels limited according to the number of inhabitants; Ban on illuminated, scrolling and animated panels, which are energy-consuming and intrusive.
  • All municipalities to follow Grenoble's example and not renew their billboard contracts.
    In this way, they too will meet the needs of a majority of French people who find advertising invasive (79%), intrusive (78%) and aggressive (53%).