That's what you get when you have competent, professional painters, typographers, photographers and designers deliberately trying to make their work exciting and attractive.

Without the ads, all you see is drab, flatly painted buildings, which are not nearly as exciting.

The feeling of excitement and aliveness does not require advertising, however. Some towns and neighborhoods revitalized their run down buildings by hiring artists to come and paint murals (which, to my eye look far better than virtually any ad), or commissioning other artwork (such as sculptures).

But even if that's not done, I'd personally much rather see flatly-painted buildings than advertising that's trying to manipulate me.