…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.