One can hardly blame the advertisers who have found a fairly tasteful and legal way around Hawai'i's well-established law against billboard advertising.

The ads are being posted on interior spaces, in parking garages and other locations where they will be seen by consumers yet won't run afoul of established law against outdoor billboard-style advertising.

Still, as staff writer Robbie Dingeman reports, the ads might become a form of "billboard creep" that threatens to undermine our reputation as a place where commercial clutter is kept to a minimum.

Particularly worrisome is the trend toward placing ads in public, as opposed to clearly private spaces. The guilty party here appears to be government itself.

Advertisements are seen on supports at Honolulu Airport and in state parking garages. And until recently, an ad was posted prominently on the exterior wall of the underground parking garage at the Honolulu Municipal Building.

Both locations appeared to be more "public" than the signage on clearly interior spaces in private parking garages.

The Municipal Building ad was taken down after officials worried it might violate the no-billboard law.

This is not strictly a matter of what is legal. Rather, it is a matter of honoring the spirit of a law (pushed through years ago by the Outdoor Circle) that has kept Hawai'i's outdoor environment relatively free of commercial clutter.

Within the confined spaces of private facilities, there is little dispute that owners can put up advertising if they wish. Indeed, it might be argued that tasteful ads brighten up what would otherwise be dark and rather dreary interiors.

There might even be room for ads, or preferably public service announcements, within the interior of government facilities.

But when the ads begin to "creep" into public outdoor space, they threaten the well-established protections of our billboard law.

It only worsens matters that, in at least two cases, that spread took place in public facilities.