Comment by kroltan | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kroltan | Hacker News Reader

I lived until recently in Florianópolis, one of the state capitals of Brazil. It is a naturally beautiful island city, and it has an iconic bridge leading into it ("Ponte Hercilio Luz" if you want to search for photos).

For some god forsaken reason, someone got away with building a gigantic - and I mean GIGANTIC - screen billboard right in line of sight of this historic postcard. I don't recall when it was installed, but if you look at any photos of the bridge taken from the south since maybe 2015, it is there.

It is bright, it plays animated ads the entire day, and it is also perfectly aligned with the nearby major road Beira Mar Norte so that people driving south to the bridge see it just off to the side of their view where it won't be covered by transit.

Frankly just due to the animations I'm surprised it is not banned as an epilepsy hazard, but alas, money speaks louder than reason, and one of the most iconic and beloved sights in this city is now tainted with the most vapid disservice to humanity.

Here's a screenshot of Google Street View: https://i.imgur.com/OXeVkuq.jpg (annotated as their camera doesn't pick up on the brightness during the day due to sea haziness)

I'm from Florianópolis and everyone I know hates that stupid billboard - it goes against the natural vibe of the city. In person it's an eye sore from kilometers away.

Not directly related, but it's so cool that three different people from Florianópolis have commented! I don't think I'd ever meet someone from that part of Brazil in my normal life. That's a little bit of internet magic

I was also taken aback tbh. But it makes sense considering Florianópolis is one of Brazil's major tech hubs.

Yep, I always see a couple fellow manézinhos (or at least residents) whenever Florianópolis is mentioned.

Now four.

How is living in Florianópolis or in southern Brazil? Just out of curiosity. Lifestyle good?

Living in southern Brazil surpasses the rest of the country in terms of quality of life (especially safety) imo. As for living in Floripa, it's a pretty easy-going lifestyle, being that it's a capital that's also a subtropical island. Nightlife isn't as you'd expect compared to bigger cities, but the many beaches, beautiful landscapes and friendly people you meet here definitely make up for it. Honestly, I wouldn't live anywhere else for the time being.

Florianópolis is a peculiar little island. It has gotten much bigger and trendier in this millennium.[1] But it is still the island of witches and other supernatural creatures.[2] As a dinosaur from the 8-bit era, I appreciate and resent both worlds. As a first generation islander (manezinho), I am neither Little-Endian nor Big-Endian . I love it here.

On top of that, we are in the mullet season. [3]

1 - https://youtu.be/fEK53W3Y-vE

2 - https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=florianópolis+frank...

3 - https://youtu.be/9YftNiFyQ9E

Thought you meant mullet as in the hair style. Some kind of bizarre Brazilian version of Movember.

We don't look Brazilian when online ;-)

Now, seriousness, there is no such thing as "looking Brazilian". We come in all sizes and colors.

I live here and oh God I fucking that that billboard so much. It fills me with pure rage.

You fucking what?

The billboard.

Jokes aside, my guess is the missing word is "hate".

lol, yes, it was. As I plunged my fingers into the keyboard I was reminded of how much I hate that billboard, so much hate it couldn't even be typed out.

I think only the owners and the advertisers like it. Would a couple high power microwave transmitters pointed at it be able to increase maintenance cost enough for them to give up?

> I think only the owners and the advertisers like it.

Isn't that true of all advertisement? sigh.

Someone here on HN once floated the idea of someone taking a paintball gun and going to town on these obnoxious billboards. Truly the hero we need right now.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28969142

Extra points if they dress as a bat.

Far less offensive but the DC metro got screen ads & it just so cheapens the experience. Used to be a kind of impressive semi-brutalist feeling, which isn't super fancy or anything. But now just tacky.

I used to ride the red line when the Metro first opened and you're right. I miss that patterned concrete atmosphere.

Im surprised there hasnt been more efforts to hack these things MaxHeadroom style and do subversive propaganda...

I cant wait until someone hacks on of these screens and does deepfakes on them - either some politicians doing crazy things, or celebrities doing crazy things, or more subtle ads that seem real, but are taking the piss.

They're slowly ruining the vibe. Several stations raised the intensity of the lighting, painted the cement coffers, changed the warning lights from yellow to red, and some have even replaced the iconic floor tiles. The new trains in general are a travesty, too. The old ones had a warm 70s color scheme, warm lighting, and carpet that absorbed some of the track noise. The new ones are steel on the outside, white and blue on the inside, with cool lighting that clashes with the stations and hard surface floors that don't dampen noise at all (to say nothing of the redesigned seating, made uncomfortable to deal with a non-existent homeless rider situation). Oh, also, the first set of them were duds with major issues.

Walking into Metro stations and onto the trains used to be a calming experience, stepping out of the stress of the city or suburbs into a chill and welcoming atmosphere. Now, I can feel my blood pressure jump.

The mayor's newphew owns the billboard company

HA!

I KNEW IT - when I first read that comment, the only thing I could think of re: "how?" was some political shenanigans.

Philippines is so much like that - for example, the Ayala family... corrupt as sin, but have their fingers in every aspect of philippines business and politics.

It is kinda fitting in the sense of all the corruption that made the bridge repairs take longer than I've been alive, now that it's repaired (?) there's that horrendous screen. It's like the rotten cherry pit atop the pile of turd.

But nevertheless, it is a true shame.

I hate those with passion. I was recently in Panama City which is filled with ultra-bright, enormous screens. It made my hotel room fully lit at night! I have no idea how they're legal.

Here's an ad for the screen:

https://floripasquare.com.br/megatela/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7sNpVCgdPs

Y'all need to team up and figure out a way to get rid of the billboard.

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