Morris Columns and Ads
While walking around Paris, you will certainly have noticed dark green columns scattered here and there on the city’s sidewalks. There are 550 of them, and they are known as Morris columns.
These columns are not there for decoration, although they are splendid.
They have a much more practical function because they are advertising media, but not just any advertising.
They are, indeed, exclusively reserved for displaying posters announcing concerts, films, plays and nightclub events.
Morris Columns since 1868
Advertising columns appeared in Paris in the mid-19th century with the rapid boom of the entertainment industry after the French Revolution.
With the rapid proliferation of theatres, music halls and cabarets, advertising space was becoming scarce. Posters thus began to appear on all available surfaces, from building walls to public toilet walls.
It became necessary to regulate public advertising!
The German entrepreneur Ernst Litfass was a pioneer in this field, introducing the first advertising columns in Berlin in 1854. In Paris, Gabriel Morris, a shrewd businessman and printer, saw an opportunity not only to address the problem of illegal fly-posting but also to make a fortune.
In 1868, he thus obtained the exclusive concession from the City of Paris and founded the Société Fermière des Colonnes Morris. Thus were born the iconic Morris Columns, offering a structured and regulated advertising medium.
Morris columns were, in a way, a precursor to today’s giant advertising billboards! One can easily imagine the success Morris would have had in selling advertising space if the Internet had existed in his time!
Columns Morris through the years
The original Morris columns were made of cast iron, had a characteristic round shape, were painted dark green, were decorated with scales and acanthus leaves, and were topped with a dome resting on a hexagonal base, adorned with lion heads at its corners.
Over time, these columns were replaced by simpler, but similar, designs.
In 1986, the JCDecaux group, a major French player in outdoor advertising, acquired the Société Fermière des Colonnes Morris, and in 2019 won a tender to replace the 550 Morris columns.
The group is reportedly modernising the iconic Morris columns while (apparently!) retaining their classic design.
Today, most of the columns are illuminated at night with an integrated automatic lighting system, and many of them rotate.
These columns offer approximately 4 square metres of advertising space, with the posters protected from weather and vandalism by plexiglass panels.
Some columns contain a small room for storing various materials and tools needed for road maintenance.
Morris columns have been an integral part of the Parisian landscape and cultural heritage since their creation, just like the superb Wallace fountains!
Thus, Parisians took to social media when, in 2006, the then mayor (Bertrand Delanoë, to name him!) considered demolishing them to “free up space.”
Many Parisians and tourists wonder why the Morris columns have not yet been classified as histroical monuments, especially since less deserving structures have been protected!
Old advertising columns similar to the Morris columns still exist in Germany and Switzerland. The question is, what prevents the City of Paris from following their example?
