The city of Nantes in western France has recently banned most electronic billboards, dismantling 110 in one night. 

And that’s only the start. A number of French cities are going to war against street advertising which they say is ugly, anti-ecological and anti-social. 

From his office, Pascal Pras, vice president of the government of Greater Nantes, pointed out the window at the central station and streets below; an area that has become a billboard-free zone.  

“We’ve cleaned this whole area. And, across the city, the reduction is drastic,” Pras said.

Advertisers have had to dismantle all large billboards in and around Nantes and reduce the number of smaller ones by about half. The municipality is also cutting digital advertising in shop windows and on the public transport system. It’s also banned all advertising near schools. 

It’s partly to save electricity. But that’s not the main thing. 

“The aim is to pacify the urban landscape,” Pras said. Near heritage sites or places of natural beauty, his city government is banning billboard advertising altogether, he added. 

“We’re also thinking about the impact of advertising that pushes people to consume more and buy things they don’t necessarily need,” Pras said.

Street advertising in the Nantes area brings in over 11 million euros per year. 

Undaunted by the revenue loss, other cities like Grenoble, Marseilles and Paris have enacted similar bans. 

France is an anti-billboard pioneer in Europe, but there are other precedents for these policies elsewhere around the world, most notably in Sao Paulo, Brazil and Chennai, India. In the U.S., bans have been enacted in states including Alaska, Hawaii, Vermont and Maine.

Stéphane Dottelonde, President of the Street Advertising Union in France, says these French city councils’ view of billboards is outdated.

“These days if your advertising is manipulative rather than honest, you’re dead,” he said, “because consumers know how to read it, how to decode it.”

But also because now there are so many restrictions on advertising. 

“A dishonest advert is much more likely to be sanctioned than the media or politicians or web influencers when they fail to tell the truth,” Dottelonde said.

Out on the streets of Nantes, passersby like Maylis Long, a local dentist, said they don’t miss the ads. 

“I think it’s a good thing to get rid of them,” Long said. “I rarely agree with the ads they give us. I often find them a bit shocking or stupid.”   

1,000 billboards are programmed to be removed from the Nantes area by 2024.