Recently, as I was driving along the Kalanianaole Highway, I noticed that there were two newly painted walls in vivid colors along the highway near Waialae Iki community park. The painted walls were not unpleasant but they appeared to be an advertisement nonetheless. Hawaii has been an exemplary state where street-side advertising is shunned and banned.

We see distasteful advertising on the mainland from the very moment we land, extending to the remote countryside, and graffiti is pervasive in many Western cities.

Even if this wall painting is claimed to be a war against graffiti, it is advertising without reservations. I vividly remember civic organizations like The Outdoor Circle won a tough war against outdoor advertising more than 50 years ago. Advertising is once again showing its ugly morphed head.

If anyone wants to make Hawaii beautiful, please do so by planting more trees and flowering foliage. Please do not paint our roadside walls under the pretext of so-called art. We must resist these insidious advertising efforts. We are already bombarded with electronic advertising every minute of our waking hours.

Please give us a break and plant real greenery and real flowers.

Birendra S. Huja

Kahala

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