Grenoble: a French city with no more commercial street advertising

No more ads. The Alpine city of Grenoble is the first European city to ban all commercial street advertising. Instead, the French city will plant trees.

The Alpine city of Grenoble. Wikimedia/Matthieu Riegler

"The city has chosen to free public spaces of advertising (...) and won't renew  its contract with outdoor advertising",  enviromentalist mayor Eric Piolle said in a statement.

From January to April 2015 more than 300 advertising spaces - 2,000 square metres - will disappear and 50 trees will be planted.

According to the advertising company JCDecaux, the city will lose 600,000 euros revenue per year.

Although figures are disputed by the mayor's office which argues that because of the falling of the advertising revenue, the loss won't be more than 150,000 euros.

Grenoble is the first European city to become advertising-free.

Around the world, the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo made an experiment in 2007 and banned omnipresent advertisings from its streets.

But it slightly backed off in 2012 when it signed a contract with French JCDecaux for the implementation of 1,000 informational clocks.