WHAT IS ON DISPLAY

External advertising, that is, the kind that is located outside closed premises, is one of the most effective forms in that it takes in a very broad auditorium. It hits the eyes of the consumer with no less force than a loud noise hits his ears.  Indeed, companies which place orders for the external advertisement of their goods or services are, as it were, shouting to the whole street: "We're here!". It's true, the question of how their "cries" are received by the public for whom they are actually intended usually remains out of the picture, unless a really irritating error appears in some slogan or other. No-one pays any attention to run-of-the-mill errors like a missing comma between the name of the street and the number of the building in the company's address, any more than they do to a misspelling of the actual word "address". But external advertising has certain drawbacks which you need to know how to skilfully circumvent.

Pluses of gigantism

The main drawback of external advertising is the flip side of its own main advantage - its large format. Some constructions are so cumbersome that they partially obstruct vehicles and pedestrians. We should immediately make a proviso: there are varieties of external advertising the massive size of which does not obstruct people at all. For example, banners. Sometimes they are displayed on the facades of buildings, but more often they stretch across highways at first or second storey level (for example, the regularly changing banner next to the Sahil metro station providing information on economic exhibitions at the G. Aliyev sports complex). Banners like these do not spoil the look of the street, nor do they obscure the beauty of the landscape. It's true, anecdotal rumours periodically circulate among drivers in the public transport sector that a batch of double-decker buses is being bought in Britain for Baku this year… but for the moment these are just rumours and the banners do not obstruct our mini-buses.

Another example is Brandmauer panels, that is placards displayed on the blind end walls of buildings (Brandmauer). These are, perhaps, the largest-scale external advertisements designed for the longer term (they are surpassed in grandiosity only by such exotic and short-term, albeit very effective, displays as advertisements from balloons or fireworks with advertising inscriptions). Of course, in terms of cost Brandmauer panels are the most expensive indulgence for advertisers (suffice it to say that in order to mount such a panel, if it is at a height of more than 30 metres, you have to hire a team of mountain climbers, and there are a host of other technical difficulties in working with such a huge area). But Brandmauer panels, besides their ability to catch the eye, have one more indisputable merit, even from the point of those who are not at all interested in the goods or services being advertised. These immense "pictures" considerably enliven the general appearance of the street by masking the dull, monotonous end wall of a newly built high-rise (like the panels not far from the visa and registration office and the BSU building) or cover up all the imperfections of the endlessly patched up end wall of a Khrushchev-era building that looks quite respectable from the front (like the panel opposite the military enlistment office next to the Bakikhanov bridge).

Cacophany of billboards

When people talk about the drawback of external advertising that has to be circumvented in the literal sense of the word, they mean primarily the highway boards and pylons. A highway board, as a means of advertising, is also known by the term "billboard", although strictly speaking this is just one variety measuring 3x6 metres (larger ones - 5x10 and 5x15 are called supersites). Thanks to illumination from beneath, such boards "work" practically 24 hours a day. But such kinds of advertisement are primarily displayed along major highways, and this entails a certain responsibility.

We are not talking about the quality of the formatting or the text - these things are always important. It has to be said that among the many quite ordinary works of our domestic advertising designers there are some that are simply outstanding. But as regards grammatical and stylistic errors it can be said that, unlike professional advertising designers, the current class of which has been growing for nearly a decade now, good copywriters are still few and far between. But the process of training them is already under way since people with this background are in more and more demand on the advertising market. So we'll leave the design and grammar side of the matter to the consciences of the advertising agencies. For now, let's focus on the positioning of the advertising boards. At times they jut out into the thoroughfare by several dozen centimetres, which is unacceptable. It's true, this occurs most often away from the city's central highways.

But in the centre it's a different problem. For example, along the boulevard, along Neftchiler Avenue, billboards are dotted about like mushrooms after rain. What's wrong with that, you will ask? The advertisers gain maximum benefit (this thoroughfare is one of the busiest areas in the capital in terms of its traffic use), the state derives revenue (through the executive authorities or the municipalities), and the pedestrians gain the pleasure of having an attractive street to look at. Of course, anyone rushing about his business will not be carefully studying the text of the billboard. A street board isn't a small placard on the metro that you stare at out of boredom and could learn down to the last letter by the time you reach your station. That's the reason inscriptions on billboards are laconic and therefore have an especially forceful effect.

And yet, according to psychologists, advertising boards on the roadside (especially boards with moving images) distract road-users to such an extent (mainly drivers, but also pedestrians) that they potentially cause a considerable number of road accidents on the major thoroughfares. From this point of view, the board-screen on the busy section of the road near the main post office, for example, is especially unfortunate - a moving image is much more effective in attracting attention than a static one. Incidentally, under the Azerbaijani Republic law on advertising (Chapter II, Article 15), "moving advertisements must not restrict the area of visibility or compromise safety on the roads".

Another aspect of the problem with billboards is of a purely aesthetic nature. There are certain standards regarding advertisements (for example, classification of the size of the boards). It's true, it is not known whether all our advertisers observe them. But it is quite evident that there have to be certain general, clear-cut controls on the part of the state not only over the financial side of their activity but also over the combination of various advertisements in the town planning system. In this context the situation on the ring road near Ramstor is proof of how easy it is to spoil the fine view of an attractive, spacious area of the city with a clutter of ill-assorted advertisements. Several multi-format multi-coloured billboards, a severe, businesslike garage stand (a tall, narrow advertising construction, up to 20 metres, very frequently met in the design of garages and showrooms), and a huge, flippantly happy kangaroo (the symbol of Ramstore) are very far apart in terms of visual harmony.

Between a palace and a refuse site

And now about pylons (the most widespread term is "city-format"). These are rectangular constructions measuring 1.2x1.8 metres, usually double-sided, often illuminated from inside. They are erected on a low support on a lawn or the pavement, and always perpendicular to the facade of the building. And that means across the line of movement of pedestrians! In fact this is wrong - a pylon should be clearly visible but should not obstruct the way. But here in Baku it doesn't happen very often that city-formats modestly crouch on a lawn - they usually "brazenly" stand out right on the already narrow pavement (on the wide pavements the best places are taken up by billboards). In crowded areas the situation with advertising pylons is especially depressing. For example, during evenings on Fontanov Square the dense crowd of people taking a stroll have to make a sharp swerve on approaching every turn, moving in sharp zigzags, since on every bend of the elongated square, right down to the very smallest, there stands the mandatory city-format.

The most badly placed advertising pylon is opposite the bookshop on the ground floor of the Nizami Museum of Literature. It not only "eats up" a substantial proportion of the small street's width, but also completely obscures from half of the pedestrians moving towards the Azerbaijan cinema not only the cinema itself but also the window of the shop on the left and, worst of all, the fine monument to the poetess Natavan by Omar Eldarov. But all of Baku's records in terms of ill-placed external advertisements are broken by another city-format - in the old town. At first sight, an excellent place has been chosen for it - under the shade of the centuries-old trees, not far from the fortress gates, near the Baksovet metro station. This pylon carries extensive information about Icheri sheher. Fine words, entirely appropriate on a construction worthy of them in terms of the elegance of its appearance… Were it not for one "but": right in front of this city-format, literally one and a half metres away, is… a refuse site.

Big red bins visually crush the small bluish pylon, not to mention the psychological effect created by the scraps, rags and bits of rubbish at the foot of the text on the ancient cultural monument. To cap it all, a sad and dirty still life has been painted into a landscape with the Shirvanshah Palace (the famous architectural monument stands close nearby, just to the left).

The law on advertising (Chapter II, Article 9) says that "advertisements which debase works of art that are of national or universal merit" are considered to be immoral. Quite honestly, there is probably no point in imagining that the ill-fated refuse site might be taken away from the fortress gates: the municipal authorities made one such attempt several years ago, but the residents of the adjacent houses made it perfectly clear that they cannot conceive of any other place to put their rubbish. The bins had to be brought back. But why did they have to put an advertisement in such a place? To win a few brownie points? In conclusion I would like to quote another passage from the law on advertising (Chapter I, Article I): "Advertising is information circulated for the purpose… of providing assistance… and introducing ideas". And this - the responsibility for introducing ideas - must never be forgotten.