Part of me prefers the 1985 version of this square.

Milan's Piazza del Duomo, before and after the city took the advertising down.

The ads didn't leave. They moved into people's pockets.

São Paulo removed 15,000 billboards and 300,000 shopfront signs in a single year. Grenoble swapped 326 ad panels for trees and community noticeboards.

Some outdoor advertising makes a place. Times Square and Piccadilly Lights would be nothing without it.

The old signage was public in every sense of the word. You could see it, photograph it, resent it, and vote it out. That is exactly why cities were able to act. There was something to point at.

You cannot photograph a bid request. You cannot hold a council vote on a supply path.

Nobody is organising against modern advertising, and it isn't because it got less intrusive. It's because it stopped leaving evidence.

Nobody will ever preserve a programmatic feed.