Hanoi mayor dials up fight against graffiti advertisements

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Graffiti advertising and fliers can be easily spotted plastered on every corner of urban Hanoi. They are splashed all over city walls, on the sides of public buildings and down narrow alleys facing people’s houses.

Telephone numbers are spray-painted everywhere around town with effortless clarity, illegally advertising services ranging from demolition to home tutorials. 

Authorities in Hanoi have tried to outlaw this illegal form of advertising by blocking the numbers on the walls.

Local residents can also report the numbers and have them painted over.

The face of the city is tainted by these advertisements, said Mayor Nguyen Duc Chung at a meeting last month, while calling for tougher measures.

However, as soon as a number is painted over, a new number takes its place as early as the following day. As a result, a pile of phone numbers, both registered and unregistered, remain splashed across the city’s walls.

Graffiti-like adverts have been a public annoyance for years. Sometimes, people even call the numbers on the wall to express their anger.

"It takes so much effort to clean them up,” said Nguyen Tam, a resident in the new Trung Kinh urban area.

Below are some graffiti advertisements that have become woven into the fabric of the city.

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