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Oopsies: Billboard company says holocaust-denial billboard was a mistake, will take it down
By adamg on Thu, 04/07/2016 - 10:36am
The Globe reports Clear Channel will remove a billboard denying the Armenian holocaust happened, just up the street from the site of an annual commemoration of that holocaust. The company says the ad was put up by mistake.
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Comments
It Happens to All of US
You know, one morning, you aren't watching out for when you're going, you trip and accidentally throw up a hate filled, genocide denying billboard. That zany Clear Channel and all it's hilarious pratfalls.
Accidents happen. What can you do?
It's down
Now an adoption billboard
http://northendwaterfront.com/2016/04/billboard-denying-armenian-genocid...
lol
That hastily-placed black trash bag of a replacement ad looks like it's going to blow off by this time tomorrow.
Tax Write Off!
Clear Channel puts PSAs on remote billboards and when they need to swap out something quick. It's a tax strategy and also allows then to say some percentage of billboards are for the public good.
Yep
Back in the day Donnelly used to put up billboards with various inspirational quotes on the unsold billboard spaces. I kind of enjoyed them.
I thought that when Clear Channel
needed to post something as a quick filler, they put up some obnoxious variation of "Post your ad here - call our rep at ..."
As for the PSAs, I believe they are a requirement to get approval to convert a static billboard to a digital display.
Mistake my ass
Clear Channel took the money and crossed their fingers that no one would bitch about the content.
nah ...
I'm Armenian so I'm heavily invested in this stuff. I've also been tracking the denial websites and social media armies that have been doing comment and twitter spam promoting the same agenda.
Honestly this just feels like an advertising company that did not fully complete their due diligence. If you look at the billboard itself it's not shocking, weird or strange in any way. It's only when you go to the website that you start to see the carefully masked propaganda message and even then unless you knew about the Armenian Genocide and the constant denial campaign by the Turkish government and others you may not even notice.
Anyway, I was rambling. This just feels like a simple mistake from the billboard company. These people do not court controversy and would not have hung the billboard if they had thought there would be outrage.
"This just feels like a simple mistake"
Let's wait and see if they return the money.
Well, the billboard did stay
Well, the billboard did stay up for several days, so they should only offer a partial refund.
The rest of the money, I can find better uses for.
Yup
I couldn't tell what the billboard's message was just by looking at it: I took Adam at his word when he said it was denying the Armenian genocide, but couldn't figure out what on earth it meant. I am not up on my Three Color Striped World Flags That All Look Sort of Identical To Each Other Anyway and One That Could Mean Turkey or Islam In General. I missed that episode of Sheldon Cooper's Fun with Flags.
My guess is someone saw the peace sign and the hammer and sickle and thought it was a "Be nice to Muslims!!" PSA.
Yeah, it's very much a dog-whistle thing
People who know about the issue know immediately what it means; everybody else just scratches their head, if they think about it at all.
The inclusion of the Russian double-crossing fingers is because, apparently, Russians are now as evil as Armenian, which probably has something to do with the ongoing war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, whose residents basically speak a Turkish dialect.
Close
It's because the background for the Armenian genocide included a series of wars between Russia and Turkey as the Ottoman Empire crumbled. The crossed fingers are meant to suggest that Russia knows what really happened (I.e. What the Turks say) but they're lying about it.
You're over thinking
IMHO you're assuming someone at Clear Channel understood the significance of the location and the message. The people who placed it knew exactly what they we're doing. Just another transaction for CC
Clear Channel often embarrasses itself and offers to remove content. After a few incidents I suggest they might learn what content is likely to offend and maintain a database of "sensitive" locations, for no other reason than it costs them money and good will every time this happens I guess not.
Just a bit late...
for April 1st.
Disturbing billboard. I'm
Disturbing billboard. I'm glad it's gone. Shame on Clear Channel for spreading hateful lies.
Just Get Rid of the Billboards
Eyesores