(dpa) - Ads, billboards and posters have increasingly been filling up Warsaw's streets, but some people say they've had enough and are now calling on the government to set limits on the size and quantity of advertisements.
Dozens of skyscrapers in the capital's downtown are covered in ads that span their entire facades, while billboards and glued-on posters vie for attention on most busier streets. And while many claim they rarely pay attention, or don't mind the ads, others say they turn off tourists and ruin the city for residents.
"I've been abroad and I've never seen this kind of thing before," said Varsovian Janusz Szaro, as he relaxed in a city park near a movie billboard. "A city has its character and mood, and I would rather see buildings than ( US actor) Eddie Murphy. There's a need for ads, but this is too much."
The deluge of ads is most noticeable in Warsaw, but the trend isn't limited to Poland's largest city. Residents from Krakow or Poznan complain of similar problems. And Poles looking to get away from it all could also be out of luck - cloth sunscreens and flags bearing company names often mark the country's more popular beaches, while billboards crowd country roads.
Sometimes residential buildings also get covered, while companies promise renovations on historic structures in exchange for rights to display their ads. The companies pay for renovations, and residents inside sacrifice views of downtown for a piece of cloth stretched across their windows.
One man was taken to court when he cut a giant hole through the ad blocking his window.
And advertisers don't always ask residents for their blessing before hanging the ads, says Elzbieta Dymna, founder of an activist group seeking to change Polish law to limit ads. Deals are often signed between the buildings' owners and the advertiser, while residents are left - literally - in the dark.
Some buildings don't get renovated at all, but only receive fees to display the ads. Others deliberately stretch out the renovation process, Dymna said.
Dymna's association - at miastomojeawnim.pl - wants the government to change laws to require permits for billboards and road signs, stick illegal advertisers with mandates, protect landmarks from advertisements and set limits for the size of the ads - which currently reach up to 72 square metres. She says limits should also be set on how long an ad can be displayed, if renovation is promised in exchange.
Her group holds monthly clean-ups that have members ripping posters off the capital's walls and scratching stickers off benches with scissors or fingernails. Since most residents don't know such ads are illegal, Dymna says the association also builds awareness.
"I wanted to create an awakening because some 80 per cent of Poles don't see a problem," she said. "Most people walk through the city and they know something is wrong, but can't pinpoint it."
Many Poles write off the Times-Squarification of their capital as a norm of capitalist times. After decades of communism where stores were only labeled as "butcher," "baker," or "delicatessen," and then there weren't many products available to advertise anyway - some say commercialization can't be stopped and is just a part of modernism.
"The ads?" asked a flower seller outside Warsaw's central metro station. "I don't see them. I don't pay attention."
But others claim that unregulated, the ads have drowned out the capital's landmarks and turned their city into a smorgasbord of images. An ironic photo montage on Dymna's website shows how landmarks in London or Cairo would look covered up in ads, and claims Warsaw's plight is unique.
"The aesthetic line was crossed years ago. It pisses me off," Dymna said. "I've documented it for a while, but recently I realized I can do something about it."