Current rules from the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) stipulate that billboards must not be placed within 50 metres of 104 streets in the capital. Posters should also be placed no higher than 32 metres from the ground and four metres from pedestrians. However, after falling billboards killed a woman and injured several others during storms in June and July, the BMA announced it would update the laws. In addition, Thailand’s Advertising Sign Production Association and the Engineering Association are sending out surveying parties to inspect and certify current billboards.
According to Surachet Bumrongsuk, country manager for Kinetic Worldwide in Thailand, most of the unsafe billboards were erected before 1990, before the regulations were implemented. This makes it difficult for authorities to take action against the advertisers or media owners, he said. “Most of the expired major billboards installed before 1990 have been removed. What remains are those that still have contracts running. But these cannot be removed and advertisers cannot be punished because the city is contractually-bound.”
The news comes almost a year after falling billboards killed people in Manila during a typhoon. New regulations on billboard installation will soon be implemented there.
