CAUSS (Citizens Against Ugly Street Spam) is a group of citizens who have gotten tired of people using public streets, telephone poles, etc as their advertising outlet. They started in the Dallas area, but have members from all over.

I agree with their basic concepts. This type of advertising is wrong. It makes the neighborhood look trashy, and the majority of the things advertised this way are just scams anyway. In most towns and cities, these signs are illegal. Here in Dallas, the city can fine someone up to $500 per day, per sign. However, in practice, code enforcement doesn't seem to concerned about it. They have fined one or two sign spammers, but the majority have been ignored.

I'm not a member of CAUSS, because I disagree with their tactics.

They recommend cutting the phone numbers (or other contact information) off of the sign, so that the advertiser can't get any responses from that sign. They prefer that you don't remove the entire sign.

They believe that leaving the remainder of the sign on the pole is a warning to other sign spammers. I've seen signs put up right over the top of cut signs several times, so I know that this doesn't work.

Leaving the carcass leaves the neighborhood looking trashy. It's easier to remove the sign than it is to cut it, and that leaves it looking clean. If the carcass is left, someone else has to clean it up later, or it will be there indefinitely.

Many CAUSS members also believe in phoning sign spammers, both at the numbers on the signs, and at their homes when they can find a number. Some of them believe in doing this in the middle of the night. I think that's wrong. Fighting abuse with abuse doesn't help anything.

You can help by cleaning up the illegal signs in your neighborhood. Often, the signs are nailed to telephone poles, and aren't easy to reach. A "sign stick" made of a four or five foot long piece of metal conduit, with a hole drilled in one end, and a 3" or 4" bolt stuck through it, makes those very quick and easy to remove.

Visit WWW.CAUSS.ORG for more information.

Feel free to email me if you have questions.

Not directly related to street spam, the badads.org site has information about many different types of advertising, much of which is invasive or dishonest.

 

 
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