Poland Is Removing Flashy Banners And Ads, And The “Cleanse” Looks So Good (30 Before & After Pics)

Article created by: Denis Tymulis

Even though there’s nothing wrong with a few classy advertisements here and there, let’s be frank—there are far too many of them in the modern world. And as these colorful collages compete for your attention, they also hide the beauty of the architecture. Sometimes, it can feel like you’re living in Night City, not a gorgeous historic city with stunning buildings.

There’s some good news on that front, however. The Polish port city of Gdańsk (along with other cities, including Warsaw) is winning the fight against chaotic adverts that clutter up the public sphere. And it’s all thanks to the local and national versions of the Landscape Protection Act. It’s been having a direct impact on how the city looks and we’ve got to say—it’s a marked improvement that helps highlight how the city would look ‘in the wild.’ Already, hundreds of buildings have had ads removed from them and are showing their facades proud and unconstrainted.

The ‘Complainers of the advertisement’ (‘Advertising Busters’) Facebook page is dedicated to documenting these changes and they’re showing the vast improvements when the ads are booted out of Gdańsk and other Polish cities. The group also calls out any illegal ads that are put up in the city. Check out some of the photos they featured below, upvote the pics you liked the most, let us know what you think of the changes, and share your thoughts on the limits we should place on ads in historic cities.

“We are a group of people who decided one day that we can’t stand the so-called visual pollution in our city and we want to do something about it, rather than only complain,” one of the team members from ‘Pogromcy Reklamozy’ told Bored Panda. “Our main goals are, on the one hand, fighting visual pollution and, on the other hand, promoting stricter landscape regulations and show positive examples. We don’t have any external funding, we do not even collect money at one of those fundraising platforms. We invest our own time and money.” Read on for their insights into how much Poland has changed recently.

Bored Panda also spoke about the fight against excessive public advertisements with a representative of the Gdańsk City Hall. Read on for their detailed insights about the Gdańsk Landscape Protection Act (LPA), how the city’s businesses adjusted to it, and the extremely positive reaction that the citizens have had to the changes.