When Clear Channel Attacks Prop. K......they do it dirty and big time
A bunch of huge billboards and fliers popped up all over San Francisco yesterday, like some kind of overnight pox, trying to persuade people to vote against Prop. K
Prop. K is an advisory measure on this Novermber's ballot that adopts a policy of restricting advertising on street furniture and City buildings.
But until yesterday, when I drove past one of this monster billboards while stuck in traffic, I had never heard of the No on K-Citizens to Protect Muni Services Committee.
What caught my eye, other than the enormous ad, was the line that said "Major Funding by Clear Channel Outdoor and Outdoor Advertisers."
Clear Channel numbers, of course, among the folk who would lose big time if ads such as these were restricted, so their opposition is predictable.
Clear Channel are also the folks who want to place ads on all the City's bus shelters, in return for fixing the shelters up and installing new ones.
These are also the folks who argued that they don't have to tell us their projected profits from coating our shelters with signs, because they are "renting" City space, rather than using it for free.
Curious, I called the Ethics Commission this morning to find out why I had never seen this Committee's name before.
tThe guy on the other end of the line had never heard of them either, and it took an hour before someone got back to me and said, 'Wow, How did you find out about them? They only filed with us today. Which is in violation of Ethics's own rules."
Turns out that this mystery committee already has $100,000 to play with, so expect to see more of the above ads all over, and expect that Clear Channel isn't worried about having to pay some piddling, to their mind, fine to Ethics, later on.
PS The treasurer for No on K is Bill Hooper, President/General Manager of Clear Channel Outdoor, Nothern California Region.
digg •
del.icio.us •
sphere •
google
•
Comments (3)
They only filed yesterday? In that case, they're really in trouble. I wrote this piece over the weekend:
http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=5027
So it's been at least several days that these billboards have been everywhere.
Posted by Paul Hogarth | October 25, 2007 05:29 PM
I got their flier in the mail Monday. Yeah, major Ehtics violation.
Posted by Erika McDonald | October 26, 2007 10:33 AM
this was printed in today's chronicle...
Editor - I am a third generation San Franciscan and honestly, I am
afraid at what is being allowed in my beautiful hometown. Advertising
has gotten completely out of hand, with Clear Channel being the
biggest offender.
Rejection of Proposition K would turn San Francisco into just another
cookie-cutter city with no individualism. It would send the message to
the rest of the nation's wealthy and corporations that we can be
bought.
My point is: enough.
We are sick of big money telling us what to buy, how to spend, what to
think, etc. How could The Chronicle ("Don't rain on a good deal,"
editorial, Oct. 18) tell this city's people to vote "no" on
Proposition K?
A "yes" vote would limit these eyesores and insults our citizens endure.
NORM THOMPSON
San Francisco
Posted by norm thompson | November 2, 2007 11:51 AM