As the world economy continues to limp forward ever so slowly, many have found themselves in a situation in which they must do more with less. While this mostly means doing the job of your former coworkers for less pay, it can also from time to time result in actual, innovative efficiencies. You know, sort of the old “work smarter, not harder” maxim in effect. Of course, coming up with smarter more efficient ways of doing business isn’t all that easy (believe me). As such, it’s always nice to hear about those who have figured out a way to “have their cake and eat it too,” so to speak.

Today’s example comes from a local government program across the pond. More precisely, it comes from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Currently the borough has a problem with illegal “fly-poster” advertisements (i.e. event posters stapled/pasted to public structures) which, to remove, requires 1.) a city employee, 2.) city time and 3.) city money — all of which add up to several hundred thousand pounds of taxpayer money, every year. Taxpayer money that could be better used elsewhere (like the pockets of the taxpayers). So, in an effort to cut spending, the borough has come up with a creative solution: stickers.

Now when a city employee comes across an illegal advertisement, let’s say a poster promoting a new club DJ night, instead of taking the time to remove it (which can take up to 45 minutes for well-pasted posters), they simply slap a big, red “canceled” sticker across the poster — thereby invalidating the effectiveness of the poster. After all, who is going to check out a canceled event? In fact, not only does it invalidate the particular poster it’s slapped onto, it works to invalidate the entire event itself. Because, again, once you see one poster saying an event has been canceled, you’re probably not going to second guess it or look into it further.

The end result? Promoters quickly realizing that spending money to post up posters across town not only isn’t worth the effort, it actually hurts their events. And, presto-chango: no more illegal posters all over town.

But will it work? Time will tell I suppose. What do you think?