So if you are looking to make copies, and you see a shop with just the name "Kinko's" above it you would know to go in there?
Or starbucks? Those names don't in any way tell you what the business does. Without advertising above the shop you wouldn't have any idea what they sell.
Look at those photos again - the only thing they have is the name, with no indication about what those shops sell or do.
Should all small business have to advertise on TV until they have a household name?
Kinkos doesn't need a sign above their store telling me it's a copy shop, nor does Tim Hortons need a billboard in the air above their local franchise telling me they sell coffee and donuts; they've successfully gotten that information to me in other mediums that are less visually intrusive upon my neighbourhood. But I frequent the Campus copy shop, not Kinkos, and their name "Campus Copy Shop" seems relatively unambiguous anyways.
Small businesses need not be able to afford a TV presence to advertise; indeed, I do not know what your neighbourhood is like, but in mine most small businesses already cannot afford large billboard-like signage on their stores and already rely upon simple names on their store-fronts. Their primary and most effective tool is, and always will be, positive word-of-mouth.
> they've successfully gotten that information to me in other mediums
How nice for you - and even nicer for those places with large advertising budgets. But that is not the case for everyone. I don't need a huge billboard above a shop. But some ads that show what they do are quite helpful.
> "Campus Copy Shop"
So you suggest that all shops name themself as basically what they do? And what about a grocery store that has a copier? How would anyone find out about it unless they already go there?
> Their primary and most effective tool is, and always will be, positive word-of-mouth.
That's great when you live there, and an utter failure for visitors.
If I'm walking down a Manhattan street and I want to make a copy I'm looking for a picture of a copier or a sign that says "Copies made here".
You must live in a very small town where locals actually know that. If you asked me where to make a copy in my neighborhood (much less city) I would have no idea.
Big stores don't really need much advertising - it's the small shops that need this, and it's exactly those smaller shops that would be less known to the locals.
I challenge the assumption that most of us wouldn't know where to make a copy in their neighbourhood, if such a service was available within a reasonable distance.
I live in Toronto, so not too small. I know my neighbourhood very well actually. If you bumped into me on the street I could tell you:
1) Where to make a copy (small independent office store nearby, but it's expensive, also where to find others).
2) Where to grab a coffee / baked goods with a recommendation of which one I prefer (none of them being Starbucks or a Tims).
3) Your options for Indian, Thai, Italian food, etc.
4) Grocery stores and the quality of their produce.
5) Local mechanics.
6) Parks.
7) Parking.
And plenty of more specific shops.
Most of these places are small independent shops. They really didn't need any signage since I've walked or driven past many of them multiple times.
I've only lived in this specific neighbourhood for a year and a half. I've lived in the city for about 15 years.
You may not know where to go to get a copy, but many of us do and not through any kind of superhuman effort either.
Also, having the internet on my phone means I can quickly find most services I need in a specific neighbourhood when I'm feeling too shy to ask.
> How nice for you - and even nicer for those places with large advertising budgets. But that is not the case for everyone. I don't need a huge billboard above a shop. But some ads that show what they do are quite helpful.
Quite helpful, for you. Useless, for me.
Neither of us should mistake our preferences for some kind of universal fact.
The public commons are a space that needs to be governed by the balancing of competing interests. Sao Paulo has evidently chosen to balance those interests in a way I would prefer given my preferences and needs, but you would not given yours.
The only thing that can be really said here is that you probably shouldn't move to Sao Paulo.
Actually, it's not. As far from the commons as one can get might be more like a heavily shielded, localized room in a remote area with no sound, light, or other effects going in or out except for some set of operators.
What is the sight one sees upon traveling through an area? A composite of many things, but including a large amount of the public faces of shops if there are any. Yet surely that sight has a considerable impact on the common areas.
Let me clarify: I didn't mean to say “this is directly part of the commons”. My main objection was to the idea that it was unambiguously not part of the commons (“as far from … as you can get”). I think that is incorrect because it is ambiguous: the physical world enforces more interference than you seem to imply.
I currently live in an area in which my window coverings are regulated to show an off-white color on the outside when closed, for what little that's worth. And almost all jurisdictions have some regulation on public clothing: public nudity is often punishable, for instance, thus excluding clothing with the color “invisibly transparent”. I neither directly support nor directly reject such laws, at the moment.
My best approximation of a “correct” solution might have involved upgrading everyone's perceptual filtering capability enough to obviate most commons regulations, but I've recently gone through a (possibly fake—I haven't stabilized the prionic meme filter yet) realization that humans are not at all what they seemed to me to be earlier on, and the inference propagation has not converged, so that shouldn't be treated as a stable opinion.
Or starbucks? Those names don't in any way tell you what the business does. Without advertising above the shop you wouldn't have any idea what they sell.
Look at those photos again - the only thing they have is the name, with no indication about what those shops sell or do.
Should all small business have to advertise on TV until they have a household name?