The first act of parliament to deal with advertising pests was the Metropolitan Paving Act of 1817; the act granted parishes the power to license (and remove) boards and signs on pavements. The Vagrancy Acts from 1824 when much further: Section 4 of the act gave the authorities a carte blanche to arrest anyone they didn't like. The legislation was mainly aimed at people who were homeless, prostitutes and/or not heterosexual, but it affected sandwich-men as well; among many others, the act made it an offence to wilfully expose to view […] any obscene print, picture or other indecent exhibition.

Sandwich-men were more explicitly targeted by Section 54 of the Metropolitan Police Act of 1839 (Prohibition of nuisances by persons in the thoroughfares). Section 54(8) made it an offence to roll or carry any cask, tub, hoop, or wheel, or any ladder, plank, pole, showboard, or placard, upon any footway, except for the purpose of loading or unloading any cart or carriage, or of crossing the footway. The act also took aim at "fly-posting" and noisy advertisers. Section 54(10) singled out every person who, without the consent of the owner or occupier, shall affix any posting bill or other paper against or upon any building, wall, fence, or pale, or write upon, soil, deface, or mark any such building, wall, fence, or pale with chalk or paint, or in any other way whatsoever. And if that is not enough, Section 54(14) targeted every person who shall blow any horn or use any other noisy instrument, for the purpose of calling persons together, or of announcing any show or entertainment, or for the purpose of hawking, selling, distributing, or collecting any article whatsoever, or of obtaining money or alms.

There are a few other noteworthy Acts of Parliament. Section 15 of the London Hacknew Carriage Act 1853 made it illegal to place ads in carriages that obstruct light and ventilation or otherwise cause annoyance to passengers, while Section 16 prohibited advertising vehicles:

It shall not be lawful for any Person to carry about on any Carriage or on Horseback or on Foot, in any Thoroughfare or public Place within the Limits of this Act, to the Obstruction or Annoyance of the Inhabitants or Passengers, any Picture, Placard, Notice, or Advertisement, whether written, printed, or painted upon or posted or attached to any Part of such Carriage, or on any Board, or otherwise.

Advertising vehicles were the logical extension of the sandwich-man; instead of hanging advertising boards around neck of a man they could hang much larger boards on the back of a horse. The next logical step was make the horse pull a cart with a small tower on which advertising posters could be displayed. The main criticism appeared to have been that this caused traffic jams.

It is also worth noting that advertising in carriages was nothing new either. The railways discovered advertising early on, and they were aware adverts could be a nuisance — they were only displayed in second and third class carriages.

The Metropolitan Streets Act 1867 had another go at sandwich-men and people handing out leaflets. Section 9 of the Act stated that No picture, print, board, placard, or notice, except in such form and manner as may be approved of by the Commissioner of Police, shall, by way of advertisement, be carried or distributed in any street within the limits of this Act by any person riding in any vehicle, or on horseback, or being on foot.

Obscenity and indecency

All the legislation I have mentioned so far aimed to stop advertising excesses, and they therefore give us an idea of what types of advertising raised the most complaints. Clearly, junk mail was not seen as a major nuisance. That may be because there wasn't much junk mail or that unsolicited letters and leaflets just weren't that annoying. It may also be that people were quite happy to use them as free toilet paper. Newspapers were used for bottom-wiping, so there is no reason to assume unsolicited letters and leaflets were not.

Junk mail advertising appeared to only have been problematic if the ad itself was obscene and indecent. Section 4 of the Post Office (Protection) Act 1884 banned sending any indecent or obscene print, painting, photograph, lithograph, engraving, book, or card, or any indecent or obscene article by post (and the next Section made it illegal to stick adverts to any property belonging to the Postmaster General, including postboxes). However, the Post Office wasn't keen on policing what was sent through the post, and they certainly didn't see it as an opportunity to weed out indecent advertising mail.

Similarly, the Indecent Advertisements Act 1889 banned indecent advertising in general, regardless of whether the advert was affixed to a building, pillar, tree or anything else; exhibited publicly; delivered to any house or affixed to or inscribed on any public urinal. I was not exaggerating when I stated that advertisers leech onto anything!

The Society for Controlling the Abuses of Public Advertising

The first advertising-related campaign group was founded in in 1893: The Society for Controlling the Abuses of Public Advertising (SCAPA), which according to Nevett was somewhat of an upper class group of people (The Scapa society, paywall). Among others, SCAPA demanded that local authorities were given more power to ban advertising in public places and that a tax on all public advertising was introduced. The group gained much support after Quaker Oats stuck a large billboard against the white cliffs of Dover. This cause quite an outcry and resulted in the Advertising Regulations Act 1907, which gave local authorities the power the make byelaws for regulating, restricting, or preventing the exhibition of advertisements in such places and in such manner, or by such means, as to affect injuriously the amenities of a public park or pleasure promenade, or to disfigure the natural beauty of a landscape.