Bitter managed to talk to Clear Channel about the MAG advertising campaign. Seems they plead ignorance to the exact nature of Moms Against Guns:
So, ignorance is no excuse, right? I would agree with that to a point. We all have biases. What concerns me is how this got so far – 30+ freakin’ billboards (which Clear Channel did acknowledge were mostly donated by them since Interstate is a smaller company) – without someone raising an alarm. That, they agreed, needed to be investigated internally. That’s refreshing honesty.
But the real meat of it is this:
So the next step was for Clear Channel’s rep to call the lead Mom who, it turns out, is self funding the group. Only that conversation lead her to discover that the group isn’t registered as a charity at all. It’s registered as an LLC, and they have no intent of going for non-profit status.
This was a bit of a shock to them. Clear Channel was lead to believe they were doing a PSA for a charitable organization. Yet, instead, their donations have been used for political advocacy for essentially a business. There will no doubt be more to come of this, and I know I am on their call list when they get it resolved.
But, for kicks, here’s another layer to this huge legal misunderstanding, I do actually know of a group that has a huge ad campaign with Clear Channel right now, though in another market. I think I’ll save most of that news for tomorrow in case there are developments to that story.
Read the whole thing though. Bitter has done a fine job not only as an amateur journalist, but in wielding her influence and PR acumen skillfully. We’re very much hoping that Clear Channel Outdoors pulls their advertising campaign for Moms Against Guns. Getting pressure from the greater community certainly has helped in this case, so thanks to everyone who called or e-mailed. If you haven’t already, feel free to call your local Clear Channel Outdoors office and inform them that you are unhappy. Especially if you own a business that purchases outdoor advertising. Let’s make sure they do the right thing here.
Even if you own or manage a business that doesn’t do outdoor advertising, let them know you won’t do it with their company if using their billboards to promote messages for gun control businesses at no cost.
You may have to explain what their Philly office did since most don’t know about it and would assume such messaging is outside the scope of what they are allowed to do. It is, but the Philly office did it anyway. However, please point out to them that if you find the national corporation takes action to correct this, you will be glad to consider them in the future. Keep it positive. If you just threaten, they have nothing to gain by giving us equal time or pulling the MAG ads down. If you say they can earn the business back by making it right, they will probably act.
Cute. LLCs don’t exist from a tax perspective, so for all intents and purposes, Clear Channel did the equivalent of giving great gobs of cash to the one (?) person who owns it.
Bitter is doing a fantastic job on this. There is no substitute for doing your homework (due diligence), no matter how pure your intentions or how good the cause sounds.