The Sidewalk Ads Keep Coming

the one I saw on 7th Street was more clever than other mat signs in that it had footprints leading away from it up the street towards the NMCP.

you can do what you like on private property so sign ’em up all you want but can we keep the public sidewalks clear of this stuff?

This ad actually had those same feet walking up to it from about 8 feet away. I couldn’t get a good photo of them so I didn’t include it in the post.

I have been meaning to contact Jack Evans to complain. This is not clever marketing. It is a nuisance, it gives me a negative impression of any business that uses it, and in my opinion it should be a crime.

As a marketing guy, I find these ads clever — and soon there will be more. As TV revenues go down, more and more “public” spaces will be sold off for ads and marketing. Soon, there will be video sidewalks, projection ads on buildings and more.

Fight it if you want, but that is the way marketing is going. Sad, perhaps. But it is a reality — especially in an affluent neighborhood teaming with tourists, conventioneers and a high-end workforce.

Oh, and good luck fighting with Jack Evans. Maybe if you plaster his front sidewalk with these ads, we will end up with laws allowing the wallpapering of the streets.

#4, I don’t think anyone is paying for the right to place these ads on the ground. At least the last time we looked into this, quoting from that post:

“An informal call to DDOT yielded that no commercial advertising is allowed on public sidewalks.”

I have to say that if these are not paid ads then they should go. What is to stop anyone from putting anything they want down on the streets otherwise? And how ironic that the Crime and Punsihment Museum ( who would want to go there anyway, John Ashcroft??? ) is using this , shla we say, less than on the up and up way of promotion. If it is legal then I suppose it is ok…although I would feel better if this type of ad was used for a PUBLIC and FREE atraction such as the Smithsonian.

Absolutely right, #7. These commercial companies pay nothing to put this litter on our sidewalks – sidewalks that belong to the taxpayers of this city. The ads are litter & should be removed & the companies that place the ads should be fined for littering & made to pay for the removal of the litter.
What’s to stop a company for covering all the sidewalks & street with this trash? It’s not innovative marketing, it’s trashing the city. And it lessens the value of the ads companies pay to place on bus stops etc. It’s just more business people stealing from the city & trashing the city – & there’s not no shortage of that in the District.

Affixing these feet or mat to the public sidewalk surface is illegal.

When the Crime & Punishment Museum found out about it they had the vendor that laid these out remove them. Some were left behind inadvertently. I have told them about the ones on 9th at Constitution heading north. If there are others, let Rebecca Menes at the museum know so they can remove them.

If youre gonna campaign to remove signs on the sidewalk, then you better be prepared to take down all of the illegally posted political signs for the upcoming elections. These, too are not legal on public property (light posts, parking signs.)

The museum was given a citation and fined by DOT according to today’s Washington Post Reliable Source column — about half way down after the piece about Mrs McCain’s half siblings.

Today’s Post has a note about the museum being fined for the ads (scroll down)… http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/20/AR2008082000253.html

What about all the litter the weekend delinquents leave all over the sidewalks of 7th St by the Verizon Center and on the Potrait Gallery’s steps, who’s going to fine them? Every weekend, the neighborhood is trashed by these people.

Good news about the fine – although it didn’t say how much the fine was, & the comment by the museum’s director Janine Vaccarello that “it was really a great campaign” shows she’s unlikely to be a good neighbor.
I think politicians are allowed to post signs for a certain number of weeks before an election, & then supposed to remove them within a week or so after the election. It’s usually the [non] removal that causes problems.