Apple to clean up Chicago el station

Image via Wikipedia

It is official. Apple will renovate the North/Clybourn Red Line Stop.

Under the CTA-Apple agreement, Apple is paying to renovate the station exterior, interior and platforms for no more than $3.9 million. The work on this station likely would be completed by Sept. 30, 2010, under the deal, which is “now in the signature process,” according to the CTA.

via Adopt my stop! Apple teams up with CTA to revamp North/Clybourn. What’s next? – RedEye.

What I want to know is: Is it possible to ban large companies from advertising in public spaces? If this is not possible, maybe a ban on “visual pollution”- the ads have to have artistic merit, reviewed by the populace.  What kind of world would we live in if the only way large corporations could keep themselves in the public eye was to do public works? Future headlines (if I were The Benevolent Dictator): “Target provides employment and housing for homeless family”, “T- Mobile buys 100 computers for inner city school” or “Coca-Cola cleans up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch“.  Would there be a downside to this?