Signage regulation in Ontario

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I don't know if there is a law, but I never see tobacco ads on buildings here. Maybe older gas stations, but The Briary just has a carving of a pipe on their sign. And, the rest in this area just have pipe or tobacco in their business name. Now, on the inside of the store, they usually have vintage ads on the walls and stuff.

Here, signage in general is discouraged. In my city, you can only have wood signs with a strict color code. No neon signage at all, even for bars or open signs. We had one business that had a local school's art club come and paint a butterfly on the side of their building, and the city made them get rid of it immediately. It looked really cool too.

I once counted how many images I saw between entering a fast food store's parkinglot and the window, and it was 56 images. If you think about how many images the average plebian would have seen in a Renaissance city, it is maybe 5 in one week. By WW1 a plebian would see maybe 200 images. Today, in one week we will be exposed to well over 100,000 images on average, including images on our cell phones and computers. It devalues images and makes us turn off our senses to them.

I realize that this was a law targeting tobacco in specific, which sucks. But, I for one would vote to reduce signage and ads that we are exposed to in general. If anyone has driven through Alabama, you could not have missed signs for an injury lawyer, Alexander Shunnarah. It has become sort of a state joke. If there is 8 feet of space on the side of the road, Shunnarah is getting ready to put a sign on it.
 

jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
24,759
27,367
Carmel Valley, CA
I don't know if there is a law, but I never see tobacco ads on buildings here. Maybe older gas stations, but The Briary just has a carving of a pipe on their sign. And, the rest in this area just have pipe or tobacco in their business name. Now, on the inside of the store, they usually have vintage ads on the walls and stuff.

Here, signage in general is discouraged. In my city, you can only have wood signs with a strict color code. No neon signage at all, even for bars or open signs. We had one business that had a local school's art club come and paint a butterfly on the side of their building, and the city made them get rid of it immediately. It looked really cool too.

I once counted how many images I saw between entering a fast food store's parkinglot and the window, and it was 56 images. If you think about how many images the average plebian would have seen in a Renaissance city, it is maybe 5 in one week. By WW1 a plebian would see maybe 200 images. Today, in one week we will be exposed to well over 100,000 images on average, including images on our cell phones and computers. It devalues images and makes us turn off our senses to them.

I realize that this was a law targeting tobacco in specific, which sucks. But, I for one would vote to reduce signage and ads that we are exposed to in general. If anyone has driven through Alabama, you could not have missed signs for an injury lawyer, Alexander Shunnarah. It has become sort of a state joke. If there is 8 feet of space on the side of the road, Shunnarah is getting ready to put a sign on it.
Agree with you strongly, in general on this subject. However, many family drives from Illinois to W. Coast Florida were brightened by Burma Shave signs, as well as the comforting thought that Stuckey's Pecans wasn't far away.
 
H

HRPufnstuf

Guest
The only choices you have are to buckle under or vote the rascals out.
The truth hurts. In Manitoba pot merchants are more common than convenience stores, finding a legitimate tobacconist is harder and harder to do. If more similar legislation appears here I will be protesting.
 
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mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,459
My local independent pipe shop has a note in pencil on lined paper on the front door saying that entering the shop may involve encountering tobacco smoke. I think he was grandfathered in, along with his smoking table, to make this okay.
 

GreatWhiteNorthPiper

Starting to Get Obsessed
Feb 3, 2022
252
806
Ontario, Canada
I just don't understand how cannabis shops here in Ontario are allowed to sell literally on every street block, with candy-coloured packaging and the like that are clearly intended to hook kids. And yet tobacco shops are basically being run out of town, even though tobacco does not alter your mental state and is much safer to use than cannabis. It's completely backwards.