Billboard Company says: Threatening atheists is A-OK
8 December 2005 by Lya KahloLamar Discourages Negative Advertising…
Lamar Advertising, a billbord company refused to allow an ad from the Democratic Party (depsite being under contract)admonishing Jean Schmidt for her vile behavior because it was “too negative.” But this is evidently perfectly acceptable:
The DNC is pissed that their message won’t be on the billboard. Personally, I feel the outright threat against atheist being deemed NOT too negative for a billboard is MUCH more distressing.
Pissed? Want to air your grievances?
Write to:
Mr. Kevin P. Reilly, Jr.
Chairman & CEO
Lamar Advertising Co.
5551 Corporate Blvd.
Baton Rouge, LA 70808
Call: (225) 926-1000.
Fax: (225) 926-1005.
Lamar Pres and CFO and CEO contacts:
kreilly@lamarhq.com
sreilly@lamarhq.com
kistre@lamarhq.com
8 December 2005, on 12:23 pm
Given this article, I’m not surprised to research and find that Lamar Advertising is a largely Xian business. Amazing to think that fundies claim media implements thought control- who would have guessed that freeway advertising was a battleground.
8 December 2005, on 12:31 pm
I think what scares me the most sometimes is the way the fundies have really targeted taking control of the media, whether it be having a stranglehold on the FCC, buying up small radio stations to create their own networks, and this whole billboard situation. Why can’t they just stick to their comic strip pamphlets?
8 December 2005, on 1:17 pm
[...] Somehow, according to the Fundamentalist in Lya’s most recent post, because I don’t believe these things exist I am Anti-America. My question to the Theists: Why? [...]
8 December 2005, on 1:26 pm
If that billboard said something similar about Jews or blacks — man, people would really get pissed and take the thing down. But atheists? Nah, no biggie. We’re not real citizens anyway.
8 December 2005, on 2:29 pm
Fuck ‘em all, the illogical fuckers.
8 December 2005, on 8:17 pm
The sign doesn’t say which God. I guess that means if you believe in Allah and fly airplanes into buildings, you can still be an American.
“Traitors lead to Civil War”
It may take a civil war to solve this problem. No problem, we’ll just attack on a Sunday when they’re all in church.
8 December 2005, on 8:48 pm
This is grossly offensive. Where is this billboard located? Could someone find me some sources on this, if I have time I might organize a little resistance to this by contacting people who advertise with Lamar to show their displeasure with this message.
9 December 2005, on 6:31 am
I emailed them. this was their reply:
thks for your note . I personally find the sign offensive, but pls note the attribution, it readable from the road This is what we asked of the DNC. our medium is available for all political speech as long as the speaker is willing to identify him or herself. I am curious, who told you that the DNC was turned down? I would ask you to read what is pasted below and let me know what you would have done.
our initial conversation with the dnc was very clumsy, we are not without fault but now it is not about politics or censorship it is about attribution.We are requesting a disclaimer that can be read from the road.” Paid for by the DNC”. My inbox is full of the type of uncivil discourse that Rep Schmidt engaged in on the House floor. We are a deeply divided nation.
http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/notices.shtml#what_is
9 December 2005, on 8:12 am
Sorry guys I didn’t realize the link wasn’t working. Should be working now. If you read the article the DNC posted about this they have a slightly different story.
“Today, at around 10 AM, the DNC got two phone calls — the first came from Lamar Advertising’s Cincinnati office, who informed us they would not be providing a quote for buying billboard space based on the content of the “Shame on Jean Schmidt” billboard. A second call came minutes later from Lamar’s Huntington, West Virginia office. Their manager informed us that he too was rejecting the ad. This rejection came more than 24 hours after the DNC had signed a contract with Lamar and 48 hours after they had accepted the artwork for the billboards you helped pay to put up.”
They accepted the artwork. Personally I think the dude from Lamar is just trying out some damage control.
9 December 2005, on 9:16 am
Skeptico:
I’m assuming you left punctuation and grammar intact as you received that e-mail. And laughing my ass off…
9 December 2005, on 11:53 am
This one got a link on my blog. Thanks Lya.
9 December 2005, on 3:27 pm
Another sad day for humans… a huge step backwards for mankind. The thousands of billboards that promote religion aren’t enough I guess. This is a sure sign of how scared these children are in a world without a god.
12 December 2005, on 12:42 am
What else can you expect from the Bible Belt. It’s best to ignore it.
12 December 2005, on 12:51 am
The Rev. Briggs is misinformed. How can I be anti-God when I believe there is “NO” God. There has to be a God in my world for me to be anti-God. My advice to the Rev.: go back to school and take a course in critical thinking.
24 December 2005, on 1:31 am
Fuck airing grievances. Where is this located so we can vandalize it??