A huge mural recreating the cover art from CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077 was created on a building in Sao Paulo, Brazil near the end of 2020. While impressive, the mural infringed upon the city's "clean city" laws, and the creator was fined about $75,000 in US Dollars for the Cyberpunk 2077 ad.
Brought to our attention by Twitter user Felipe Pepe (via the Brazilian video game news site START,) work on the mural began in November 2020 when a production company known as "NaLata" paid the owner of the São Bento condominium to use two blind gables for an art project. According to those living in the condominium, those responsible for the art had access to the walls for two years, could change the art as they see fit, and weren't instructed on legal risks. The final mural was over 20 meters tall and reportedly got some positive press in a now-deleted tweet from the city's official Twitter.
Why is the Sao Paulo Cyberpunk 2077 mural illegal?
We have a "clean city" law, where most outdoor advertisement is forbidden. Can't have giant ads, logos, etc. This is how it was before & after the law passed: pic.twitter.com/CDEsan4DS4
— Felipe Pepe (@felipepepe) January 13, 2021
Unfortunately, as some local journalists noted, the Cyberpunk 2077 mural conflicted with Sao Paulo's "clean city" laws, which forbid most forms of giant outdoor ads. The city does have an impressive urban art community, which also makes the occasional stories-high mural. This can be a bit of a gray area sometimes when urban art uses copyrighted characters, but the city ruled that the Cyberpunk 2077 mural was an advertisement for the game in question. In response, the city fined the production company NaLata around $75,000 in US Dollars and had the mural removed yesterday. TechRaptor has reached out to CD Projekt Red for more details about the mural.
Cyberpunk 2077 isn't the only game to infringe upon the clean city laws. Last September, the company Garena commissioned NaLata to create an 11-story mural for their mobile game Free Fire. Launched in 2017, Free Fire is a battle royale game developed by 111 Dots Studio that has a high user base in Brazil.
