Another company violated San Francisco ordinances and ran stencil ads on Mission District sidewalks.
tipster popular doctor writes: “Huf, a corporate skateboard company, has at least 10 ads with a few blocks from our house on city bike paths and sidewalks. Especially near Duncan and Valencia, a skate spot popular in our neighborhood.”
He adds, on Twitter, “Corporate ads on public sidewalks suck. It sucks when Microsoft’s or Justin Bieber’s marketing team does it, and it sucks that @hufworldwide
does it in SF now.”
Hoodline has reported illegal sidewalk ads like this in the past, particularly when Lady Gaga’s promotional team stencilled ads for her “Joanne” album all over the Castro. The Department of Public Works has pledged to send the record company a bill for its cleanup efforts, and the city attorney has said in cases like this the culprits behind such spray stencils can be convicted. to a fine of $2,500 per instance of the stencil.
These ads have also been used to advertise albums by Justin Bieber and Edward Sharpe over the past decade, and the deYoung Museum’s marketing department ran stenciled ads for the museum’s “Summer of Love” exhibit in 2017, without knowing it was illegal. They quickly apologized.
“This prohibited marketing practice illegally exploits our city’s pedestrian neighborhoods and robust tourism,” City Attorney Dennis Herrera said in a 2015 statement responding to the Bieber graffiti. “[It] intentionally creates visual distractions that pose risks to pedestrians on busy rights-of-way; and irresponsibly communicates to young people that lawlessness and disregard for like-minded public ownership is condoned and encouraged by its beneficiaries – including Mr. Bieber and the record labels that produce and promote it.
Ads are usually made with spray washable chalk, but the fines remain the same whether the ads are made with paint or not.
The HUF advertisements arrived late last week alongside the opening of a new HUF store at 968 Valencia Street. HUF is a clothing brand that also sells skateboards and accessories, and they celebrated the launch of the store with a party on Friday at City Station (the parking lot at 18 and Valencia).
