HUMAN BILLBOARDS BANNED FROM MADRID

Madrid City Council introduced a law last week to take human billboards off the streets, along with pamphlet distributors and cars with huge ads on their roofs, at the beginning of next year. Madrid Mayor Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon announced the clean-up two years ago, although not all advertising symbols will be banned. The familiar chemist's green cross stays, as do Tio Pepe and Schweppes. The city's famous Gran Via and Puerta del Sol will still light up at night but the neon lights will disappear from most of the oldest parts of the city. And the new law also limits the amount of light output for the ads. But there will be no more two-legged billboards offering to buy gold, discounts on all and sundry, or advertising the services of African witch doctors "littering" the streets and causing "visual contamination".