JEDDAH, 14 November 2003 — “Buy one large pizza and get two liters of juice absolutely free.” “Electricians, cleaners, laundry, gardeners, tutors — all in one.” “Check out our new 25-riyal menu.” These are some of the messages that proliferate around the front doors of many Jeddah homes. Glued firmly to walls and doors, their message barely registers on the cerebral cortex but their visual impact lasts for months, disfiguring doorways and driving owners to despair.
For companies it is a cheap way of advertising their goods and services. For homeowners it can be expensive. “I spent SR20,000 on new carved wooden doors, and they were covered in stickers and labels in all shapes and sizes in a matter of weeks,” one homeowner told Arab News.
Some days residents return home to find 10 to 15 new stickers by the door. “Companies, associations, restaurants, bookshops, all you can think of. On the doors of private homes, apartment buildings, garage gates, car windows, everywhere,” one resident said.
“They use very strong glue so I can’t get the stickers off my wall,” he added.
Prayer time, when the streets are quiet, is the preferred time for the companies’ agents to get adhesive on people’s property. Prayer over, they run away, leaving their unsightly evidence behind.
“Come see my door, it has all you can imagine, from special pizza offers to bargain books, from matchmakers to professional electricians,” Yusuf said. Some say they can no longer find their own doorbell.
But is the practice likely to produce results for the advertisers? “It may be cheap, but what gives them the right to disfigure our doorways? Who’s going to like them for that?” Yusuf asked.
“People know where to find ads in their papers. If they need something, they know how to find it,” he said. “They use the directory or ask a friend. Nobody is going to go from door to door checking out the ads.”
