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What One Person Can Do About...

Offensive Billboards

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Increasingly, offensive billboards are popping up in towns all across America. Particularly, radio stations use this medium to promote their station with scantily clad photos and offensive language.

AFA suggests two ways to address offensive billboards in the local community, particularly radio station boards that contain sexual content: Industry approach and local approach.

The industry approach

Pro-Family Leaders representing 30 million U.S. families have met with the Executive Board of the Outdoor Advertiser Association of America (OAAA) and presented the following "Code of Ethical Conduct" to the OAAA and requested all of their members to make this code their corporate policy.

Code of Ethical Conduct

Because outdoor advertising is an influential medium with a high profile in our urban, suburban and rural environments, and thus has a major impact on the standards, lifestyles and quality of life of our communities, the members of this association will not display ads that:

  • Present children in a sexual pose or situation.
  • Show contours of male genitals pressing against underwear or other tight clothing.
  • Focus on or emphasize the genital or pubic area, buttocks or female breast.
  • Show, give appearance of, describe or suggest urination, excretory activities or explicit sexual conduct.
  • In addition, because of the urban blight, increased crime and decreased property values proven to be caused by sexually oriented businesses such as adult bookstores, "gentleman's clubs" or striptease shows (as judicially noted by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Renton v. Playtime Inc., 1986), we will not accept advertisements from such businesses.
OAAA members own 90% of all billboards in the U.S. and the following procedure was agreed upon by OAAA members when dealing with citizen complaints:

  1. Take three (3) photos of the offensive billboard, keeping one (1) for your records.
  2. Obtain the name of the billboard company, address, phone, etc., that owns the billboard.
  3. Obtain the exact address of the billboard's location, including city and state. Two (2) options for citizens to pursue at this point:

    Send a photo and all of the obtained information to Citizens for Community Values who is serving as the National Coordinator for the Outdoor Advertising Campaign.

    Mr. Phil Burress - President
    Citizens for Community Values
    11175 Reading Rd., #103
    Cincinnati, Ohio 45241-1997
    Email: info@ccv.org

    Or send a photo and all of the obtained information to Ms. Nancy Fletcher, President and CEO of OAAA.

    Ms. Nancy Fletcher - President & CEO
    Outdoor Advertiser Association of America
    1850 "M" Street N.W., Suite 1040
    Washington, DC 20036
    Email: nfletcher@oaaa.org
If you choose to send the information directly to Ms. Fletcher, please send a copy of all the information, including a photo, to Mr. Burress. As the National Coordinator for the Outdoor Advertising Campaign, a nation-wide file is being accumulated.

The local approach

The most common offensive billboards are those placed by the local rock radio stations. Most often, the station implies or uses women's breasts to hype the "morning crew."

By using the following suggestions, it is possible to encourage the radio station to remove or change the billboard. You must be prepared to dedicate yourself to winning this battle. It will require hard work, but our children's welfare is worth it!

  1. Contact the station manager and politely ask him to remove or change it to better reflect community standards. (In reality, you can expect plenty of excuses and no promises, but at least you tried.)

  2. Begin a letter writing campaign to advertisers who are on the station. Ask them to distance themselves from being associated with stations that promote pornographic messages. Click here for a sample letter.

    NOTE: Your right to contact and encourage businesses to act responsibly with their advertising is a protected right for any citizen. In the past, radio stations have tried to intimidate citizens by threatening to sue them. The AFA Center for Law & Policy stands ready to defend your rights and immediately respond to stations that threaten citizens.

  3. Consider taping and reviewing the advertised morning show for content. Monitor the show for indecent sexual language, then file a formal complaint against the station with the Federal Communications Commission.
For further information about combatting offensive billboards in your community, send an email to contact@afa.net



 
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