Ad agencies decry billboard ban in Kunming

By Lan Tian (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-10 09:28

Advertising professionals in Kunming are complaining about city officials tearing down all outdoor advertising billboards within the urban area for safety reasons.

In July, advertising companies in Kunming, capital of Southwest China's Yunnan province, received a notice issued by the city urban administration bureau. It informed companies that city authorities would dismantle all of the 245 outdoor advertising billboards in the urban area by the end of November, the China Youth Daily reported yesterday.

Authorities said that the billboards were installed without permission or failed to meet safety standards. Among them, 54 billboards did not have an installation license, and the licenses of 153 billboards had expired. But the licenses for 38 billboards were valid, the report said.

About 200 billboards along the roadside citywide have been torn down as of Sept 24, an anonymous official with the bureau was quoted as saying.

Although the urban administration bureau officials could not be reached yesterday, local advertising professionals confirmed to China Daily that nearly all billboards have been demolished.

"The city government's arbitrary decision to tear down all outdoor advertising billboards in the urban area is not based on any domestic law or regulation," said Lei Qiang, deputy general manager of Fengchi Media Corporation, a leading advertising enterprise in Kunming.

The city government has waged similar campaigns since 2005 in a drive to crack down on outdoor billboards with poor quality as well as to improve the city's look. The area of the billboards has decreased from 310,000 sq m in 2005 to 140,000 sq m presently, the report said.

Fengchi Media's annual sales dropped from 170 million yuan ($25 million) in 2005 to 118 million yuan in 2007. Last year when authorities demolished billboards inside the city's second ring road, the company had to lay off 30 percent of its employees and cut salaries by 15 percent, Lei said.

"Many of our billboards had licenses and permission before being installed, but we still cannot survive after the authorities' series of crackdowns," he said.

Wang Haizhang, general manager of local Fenglun Advertisement Company, told China Daily that the company's six billboards dismantled in September were installed months ago after being permitted by the local government.

"Our company is on the verge of bankruptcy because of losing millions of yuan after the government's years of cracking down on outdoor advertising," he said.

"I think local government officials have been ignorant of the law and won't win the public trust in the future. How could they issue licenses to us but later dismantle the outdoor advertisements?" he said.

Wang said many local professionals, including him, have applied for administrative reconsideration but have not received any answer yet.

"Authorities neither care about the outdoor advertising industry's survival or development, nor make any industrial policy. Under such arbitrary supervision, the protection for advertising companies' legitimate interests is absent," Lei said.

In 2007, the privately-owned advertising enterprises' income in Yunnan decreased by about 3 percent, while the foreign invested advertising enterprises' income dropped by almost 21 percent, according to the Yunnan provincial advertising association.