By Stephen Michalowicz

Rogers ads at Parliament and Carlton on Monday morning. Photo by deadrobot from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

Yes, Rogers—the beloved telecommunications giant—has once again spray-painted illegal ads on sidewalks across the city.

On Monday night, at around 10:30 p.m., R.T. Lechow spotted two Rogers agents tagging the corner of Bathurst Street and Barton Avenue, and was able to capture photos of the deed before the duo sped away in their unmarked Lexus. Ads were spotted that day at other locations, including Christie Street and Barton Avenue, and Parliament and Carlton streets (above), much to Torontonians’ and 311 Toronto‘s displeasure—the City-run hotline quickly dispatched a by-law officer to investigate.

Defaced Rogers ads at Bathurst and Barton. Photos by Stephen Michalowicz/Torontoist.

In fact, by 10 a.m. Tuesday, Jesse Hirsch tweeted that the ads at Bathurst Street and Barton Avenue had already been defaced (above)—one of the messages had been changed to read “Most Lame HD Movies” and the word “Not” had been added above “Fastest Internet.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Torontoist brought the ads to the attention of Keith MacArthur, Rogers’ senior director of social media and communications, who quickly repented for the telecom’s ways. “In this case, we crossed a line that we weren’t aware of,” he told Torontoist. “As soon as it was brought to our attention, we halted the program and we are taking immediate action to remove the messages.” (BlogTO reports that Rogers has already begun to remove some of the offending ads around The Beach.)
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen illegal sidewalk graffiti from Rogers, but hopefully the telecom follows through on its promises and makes it the last.