"Please stop!" screams the 63-year-old Nunu Bedane, as a spirited group from the Addis Abeba Code Enforcement Authority tears down an advertisement board that has been there for the past 12 years.

Fitted in green uniforms, about 40 baton-armed ensemble reply in a frenzied tone that it does not comply with the new reform. After half an hour of pleadings and tears, the group disperses, promising Nunu that they will return the next day. This time, they warned that there will not be mercy if she fails to obtain permission.

Nunu's story echoes through the streets of the business district around the Hayayhulet area on Haile Gebreselassie St., where baffled shopowners witness their decades-old establishments stripped of their marketing adornments. She feels defeated as two of her other shops around CMC and Salite Mihret area were not spared.

"All we want is to make a living in peace," Nunu told Fortune.

A theatrical spectacle has been unfolding across Addis Abeba for the past couple of weeks. Business owners plead with the city's patrol men over implementing new standards on outdoor advertisements, which was approved a year ago.

Bags of advertisements are piled up in the districts as shop owners try their hand at keeping the ads from being expropriated by the patrolmen.

One of these paramilitaries is Getahun Feleke from Wereda 04 of Bole District Code Enforcement Authority. He insists that they are cleaning up the capital whether business owners understand or not. According to Getahun, prior notices had been given to shopowners through a door-to-door campaign.

"Not knowing doesn't translate to freedom from accountability either," he said.

The advertisements deemed to alter the city's aesthetics are piled onto trucks and transported to backyards where scrap metals are stored to be disposed. A committee within the ranks of the Authority is tasked with the duty.

"We work in tandem with other bureaus as well," Getahun said.

In line with a citywide campaign to upgrade Addis Abeba's aesthetics and control illegal advertisements, the former head of the Building Permits & Control Authority, Sitotaw Akale,  approved the standards. It serves as the ground to the sweeping campain that stipulates zonal aesthetics must be maintained while outdoor adornments must be complementary to city landmarks and infrastructure developments. Permits must be obtained from the Authority after approval of advertisement designs.

Officials disclose that years of awareness creation preceded the implementation.

Gebrehana Belete, a senior outdoor advertising expert at the Authority, suggests that the advertisement landscape in the capital lacks uniformity and should be complementary to the reforms undergoing in the city.

"The goal is to create a scenic city," he told Fortune.

Eight types of advertisements, from digital billboards to large posters on vehicles all the way down to outdoor speakers, are regulated by the Authority. Gebrehana noted that the regulation of outdoor advertisements would increase public revenue as fees are required for the permit.

"Annual renewal fees add to the city's revenue stream," the senior expert indicated.

The Authority plans to collect 47 million Br in revenues from services fees in the year. It has managed to collect five million Birr from 4,624 permits in three months, fifth of the 20,000 permits planned for the year. However, the eight-person staff currently managing permits has been struggling to finish the process at a fast pace, according to Gebrehana.

"We just started out," he told Fortune. "Everything won't be smooth in the beginning."

The strict standards, which have led to the removal of thousands of advertisements in the past three months, include stipulations on height, appearance, colour and angles of billboards, with business owners fined up to 15,000 Br for failing to abide.

"There are no excuses for trespassing the law," said Gebreahana.

Business owners suggest otherwise.

Yordanos Gouse owns a chain of 29 organic beauty shops across the country. She claims to have had her electronic boards torn into pieces only two days after the enforcement stormed in and requested permits.

"We didn't know what they were talking about," Yordanos claimed.

The 40-year-old migrated from Ghana 12 years ago, looking to take advantage of the evolving Ethiopian business landscape."It is really difficult to do any business in the country," she told Fortune in a frustrated tone.

Yordanos indicates that outdoor advertising forms an integral part of her business model as part of a competitive sector that demands the constant introduction of new products.

Outdoor advertising has become an essential element of the marketing landscape, significantly evolving in sophistication since the early posters in ancient Egypt, which relied on concoctions of oil and water.

Political campaigns, new products and even public service announcements have adorned the urban landscape since paper posters started being produced in the 1860s. The current campaign in the capital has raised eyebrows from legal experts who note the possible violation of several stipulations within the commercial law.

Yehualashet Tamiru, a corporate lawyer, suggests that the vandalism and confiscation of property of a sole proprietor will be seen as a human rights violation under commercial law as the business and the owner are viewed as one.