Lamar Advertising: Hatred Meets Community Standards

Lya's post inspired me to do a bit more research on Lamar Advertising, one of the countries largest billboard advertising companies. I had noticed in the past that a lot of the 'God' billboards were owned by Lamar as were several with rather rude 'with us or against us' post 9-11 messages that seemed to be temporary placeholders on billboards that were not sold. I had suspected that this Louisiana based company was headed by wing-nuts, and now I am sure.

The company has just violated a contract with the Democratic Party in refusing to run ads critical of congresswoman Jean Schmidt after her attacks on decorated war veterans. The reason that they indicated for the breach of contract was that the ad was negative. However, as Lya points out, this ad (see below) referring to atheists as Anti-American, Lunatics and Traitors is evidently NOT a negative ad in their eyes. And that is not all.


They have bowed under pressure from the right-wing Christian hate group, The American Family Association to pull billboards in Pennsylvania that the group disapproves of.

And in Georgia, they have refused to run ads for Georgia Equality, a GLBT support group. The ads which depicted doctors, firemen and professionals with the slogan, We are Gay and We are your Neighbors, was refused because it violated local community standards.
So according to the reasoning of Lamar Advertising, it is a violation of community standards in Georgia to be gay. They have run ads, however, for groups promoting 'gay therapy' to help the poor gay and lesbians of America to become 'ungay'.

And yet again in Georgia, a Lamar executive, Chris Story, refused an ad for the animal rights group, PETA, on the grounds that, "Their whole campaign is to shock," and that "It's not in line with community standards." Story says that his criteria for decisions regarding which ads to refuse is this; "The way I look at it, what would you put in front of a 5-year-old on their way home from school?" Take another look at the hate-spewing billboard at the top of this post. This billboard is OK for a 5-year-old to see on their way to school, is not negative and meets community standards? I evidently have different 'community standards' than Lamar Advertising. Or perhaps it depends on what school your hypothetical 5 year old attends. I suppose a school that teaches hatred, intolerance and bigotry would approve of such ads.

Lamar is obviously using the excuse of 'Community Standards' in order to push a right-wing agenda. It should be no surprise that they contribute dominantly to the Republican party.

I would encourage all free-thinking bloggers to post about this in order to let our readers know that we do not appreciate Lamar advertising's support of hate, intolerance and threats of violence.

If you would like to complain here are some numbers:
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

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atheism,atheist,American Family Association,
hate, Macon,Lamar advertising,gay
billboard,democrat,Jean Schmidt