Grenoble has spent more than a decade stripping ads from its streets, and the change is easy to spot.

“There used to be a massive block of concrete here, there was an advertising column, it wasn’t so beautiful,” says Gilles Namur, waving his hand along the length of Cours Lafontaine, a street that runs through the historic center of Grenoble.

Today, the street has been redesigned with a spacious bike path. A long row of trees has been planted along one side, matching the row on the opposite sidewalk, and the advertising has been removed.

“Our lives are now full of ads, consumerist imagery that have negative impacts on society, the way we live,” adds Namur, Grenoble’s deputy mayor for quality of life, biodiversity and mobility. “We want to try and reduce that as much as possible.”

Grenoble’s campaign against what it calls “visual pollution” began in November 2014, when then-incoming mayor Éric Piolle announced he would not renew the soon-expiring contract of JCDecaux, the multinational company that at the time managed hundreds of billboards across the city.

The following year, when the contract ended, city authorities dismantled 326 advertising devices, including columns, large panels and so-called “lollipops,” covering more than 2,000 square meters of surface. Many were replaced by trees. Grenoble became the first city in Europe to ban billboards in public spaces.

“Alcohol, cars, junk food, women depicted as sexual objects,” adds Namur. “We don’t want it.”

Campaigners say the case against advertising in public spaces includes sexist and consumerist imagery, pressure on local businesses that cannot match big advertising budgets, carbon emissions linked to nighttime lighting and damage to the beauty of outdoor spaces.

A review of 52 scientific studies into visual pollution carried out between 2008 and 2023 found it can lower concentration and cause negative psychological responses, including anxiety, fear, insecurity and lethargy.

“Visual pollution has emerged as a significant environmental issue due to rapid and uncontrolled urban expansion, leading to a variety of social and aesthetic challenges,” the authors wrote.

According to some estimates, people were exposed to about 500 ads per day in the 1970s. Now it is said to be up to 5,000. While the reliability of those figures is murky, the article says it is clear that people are confronted with significantly more ads today than previously.

“These ads are imposed on us, we never asked for them, we don’t have a choice,” says Thomas Bourgenot, spokesperson for Resistance to Advertising Aggression, a French advocacy group.

Bourgenot and his team have been involved in several wins against advertising in France, including the 2016 ban on advertising targeted at children on publicly funded media, the 2022 ban on advertising for fossil fuels and experiments in France to make spam mail in letter boxes opt-in.

“Progress can be painfully slow,” says Bourgenot.

Grenoble later expanded its push beyond public land. In 2020, city hall worked with the Grenoble Alpes Metropolitan Authority, which includes 49 municipalities in the region, to tighten restrictions through the Intermunicipal Local Advertising Regulations.

The rules banned advertising near schools, on rooftops and in heritage areas, and also limited billboard size. That led to 117 more billboards being removed from Grenoble’s streets.

Today, advertising is prohibited in all public spaces and in 90 percent of the rest of the city. The only remaining advertising panels are those on public transit shelters managed by SMMAG, the Joint Mobility Authority of the Grenoble Metropolitan Area, which makes decisions independently of city hall.

The changes have also been tied to street redesign. On Cours Lafontaine, the city installed a counter showing the number of cyclists who have passed it, more than 2,000 that day and more than 600,000 so far this year.

In another spot a few minutes away, a black walnut tree was planted where a billboard once stood. More than 50 such trees have been planted across the city.

The only signage now allowed in public spaces is for nonprofits and cultural activities.

Gabrielle Reynaud, a 25-year-old school teacher, said the lack of advertising had become normal to her.

“You don’t realize until you leave and go somewhere like Paris and it’s a big shock to the senses,” she said. “We’re used to a more tranquil life here.”

Political backing for the policy appears broad. Even after two election cycles since the ban was introduced, there has been no effort to bring billboards back.

“It’s a non-subject,” says Namur.

Other French cities have taken similar steps. Lyon has banned digital advertising panels from public spaces, including the metro. Montpellier introduced rules requiring advertising to be 150 meters away from schools, up from 50 meters, cutting the number of billboards by a third. Paris has also moved to sharply reduce outdoor advertising in its streets.

Grenoble says authorities from across Europe, from Geneva to Denmark, have contacted the city to learn from its example.

“It’s a very positive and encouraging initiative, it’s an example that others can learn from,” says Raheel Nawaz, a professor at the University of Staffordshire in the U.K. and co-author of the book Visual Pollution: Concepts, Practices and Management Framework.

Other cities have tried similar restrictions. In 2019, London banned posters for junk food across its public transport network. In 2007, Sao Paulo removed 15,000 billboards and 300,000 storefront signs in a single year, though some advertising has since returned. Chennai banned billboard advertising in 2009. Several U.S. states, including Vermont and Maine, have been free of billboards since the 1970s. In May, Amsterdam became the world’s first capital city to ban public advertisements for both meat and fossil fuel products.

Nawaz said visual pollution is experienced differently depending on place and context.

“When I first went to Florence, they told me visual pollution is bad architecture, ugly buildings,” he says. “In other places, it’s open sewage systems, year-round flooding. You step outside your house and it’s all muddy. It’s a real physical hazard to you.”

There is also a financial trade-off. Former Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said in 2020 that she wanted to ban ads, but pulled back over the possible loss of 40 million euros in city revenue. Paris has still banned digital billboards from its streets.

Namur says the financial loss is becoming less significant, especially with the growth of online advertising. He says Grenoble received 600,000 euros in ad revenue in 2013, but during renewal negotiations it was offered 150,000 euros.

“These ads are made for car drivers, not for pedestrians, and with fewer cars here, it’s less interesting to advertisers anyway,” adds Namur.

Grenoble’s next target is storefront signage, particularly because of nighttime energy use, under Mayor Laurence Ruffin, who was elected earlier this year after Piolle reached his term limit.

“It will not be straightforward,” says Namur. “But we have to do everything we can.”

Read more from Reasons to be Cheerful.