Billboards Not to Move Aside
Spokesmen of Moscow Advertising Guild went to the city’s authorities yesterday, August 24, 2005, to call for shelving the dates of a new GOST introduction. In today’s revision, that government’s standard on outside ads means an end to more than 60 percent of billboards.
The market players say introduction of the GOST standard on outdoor ads for highways on September 1, 2005 will reduce the number of billboards by more than 60 percent, as the better part of ad places couldn't be used for billboards. “For instance, 77 percent of the ad structures in Kutuzov Ave don’t meet that standard,” said Andrey Berezkin, general director at ESPAR Analytic, adding the annual turnover will shed by between $400 million and $450 million for outdoor advertising (2004 turnover was $710 million, according to AKAR).
The ad operators are particularly agitated when it comes to the GOST requirement for billboard placement – at least five meters from curbstone, no less than 25 meters from the stations of public transport, etc. “In most cases, there isn’t enough space to move a billboard by five meters aside the highway,” said Vladimir Pantyukhin, deputy GD at Vershina. “Most vital is that all figures set forth in the GOST couldn’t be properly substantiated.”
It appears the market players are backed up by Vladimir Makarov, head of the advertising, information and decoration committee of Moscow. “I stand for the safety of road traffic, but any GOST should be objective and well-grounded,” Makarov stressed yesterday. “The drivers score billboards number five or six when it comes to evaluating the factors that hinder the traffic, well behind road pavement, lighting and the like.”
by
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 25, 2005
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