The glaring LED boards beaming down on central Shanghai have ignited a dispute over visual pollution and commercialism.

The LED installations, which display a constant stream of commercials on a nearly 40-inch screen, started popping up around Shanghai earlier this year. They are now nearly ubiquitous around the city's major commercial areas.

Nearly 40 LED screens line both sides of the well-known shopping street Central Huaihai Road.

Some people accept the screens as being decorative, though many others completely disagree. "They are dazzling and noisy, especially at night," said Wang Ming, a local clerk who works at an office building on Central Huaihai Road.

"These LED screens are a kind of visual pollution because they force people to watch them by emitting strong lights and sounds. Actually, I can say that these outdoor advertisements have seriously encroached on the public space," he said.

Other people who oppose the presence of these signs say the information conveyed on the LED screens is purely commercial and "not in line with the image of Huaihai Road as one of the city's more historic streets."

However, some people said the screens were inevitable addition to already crowded public space.

Zhang Xiaotao, an IT professional who works near Central Huaihai Road, said she did not mind the LED screens and would even stop to read the news briefs scrolling across the bottom of the screens. "It is so difficult for people to escape outdoor advertisement nowadays," she said. "You can see it anywhere, huge posters on top of buildings, small televisions next to the elevator or at metro trains. So why bother about the LEDs?"

A public relation clerk surnamed Wu from FocusMedia, a Shanghai-based outdoor advertising firm, said company research had found that the LED screens were very popular among both advertisers and audiences.

"This medium (LED screens) is dynamic and vivid, able to convey a large volume of information," she said. However, Wu refused to comment on whether the LEDs caused visual pollution.

So far there have been no laws or regulations governing the use of LED screens for commercial purposes in China.

(China Daily December 11, 2006)