There's nothing funny about killing puppies

UPDATE 4/30: see below for radio station's response: now threatening to shoot people, too.

UPDATED 4/17 8:45 P.M. with response from Lamar (see end).

Montgomery folks, here's a good example of how outrageous advertising has to be to get your attention - and why billboards can be a real detriment to your community.

How would you like to explain to your six-year-old that some ad agency and radio station thought it would be funny to threaten a puppy to promote their station? In many abusive relationships, the abused partner stays because their beloved pet has been threatened.

This is a perfect example of how billboards turn into blight. Once you allow them, you cannot control what goes on them. You have to hope that the company (in this case Lamar) will use some sense, but that doesn't happen very often. In Lamar's case, they'll decline political expression but seem to have no problem with threatening violence to innocent creatures.

Today's billboards are a far cry from the "Hotel Next Exit" advertisements of long ago. Now, they're like having someone hiding in the bushes at your house, yelling at you every time you pull in the driveway - and you can't tell them to shut up.

Take action on this billboard, and on billboards in general in your community. You don't have to tolerate it.

Here's what you can do:

Contact the radio station: Alice 96.1. Phone 334-396-5477. Fax 334-279-9563. Email radio personalities: gbuddell@bluewaterbroadcasting.com swoody@bluewaterbroadcasting.com rpeters@bluewaterbroadcasting.com jnorris@bluewaterbroadcasting.com

The station is owned by Bluewater Broadcasting, a partnership of Scott McQueen, Rick Peters and Alta Communications. Contact Alta Communications' Managing Partner, Brian McNeill Phone: (617) 262-7770; Fax: (617) 262-9779, or go to http://www.altacomm.com/contact/bus_plan.cfm and try to submit electronically. I was unable to find an email address. Contact Lamar Advertising/Montgomery at (334) 281-0780 or their corporate office at (225) 926-1000, email tdoran@lamarhq.com.

If you can, please leave a comment here if you have taken action. You can also email Scenic Alabama using the link.

UPDATE: This is the response received from Tom Traylor, General Manager to an email sent from a concerned Montgomery resident. (His email is ttraylor@lamar.com so he must be with Lamar - maybe they worked w/ the station to come up with the concept.)

"I recently received an e-mail from you regarding our radio station billboards. Let me assure you that, after design and re-design, we and the radio station in question both agreed on the current design which has a finger instead of a gun pointing at the dog. The reason we chose this was because the finger clearly identifies this ad as a humorous ad. Believe me, I have two dogs that I love as much as my kids (nearly), so I understand and am sensitive to anything portraying animals in a cruel fashion. This is not one of those ads. I just wanted you to know that those things do matter to us and that we don’t just, arbitrarily, put things up without a process. Thank you, Tom Traylor, General Manager"

The response to Mr. Traylor: "Tom-I really appreciate your return email. Unfortunately, most of us do not see this ad as humorous. To state that the ad is humorous because there is a finger instead of a gun clearly states that your design and re-design folks had a gun in mind when the ad was written. Your process needs to be re-examined. If this is all your ad department can come up with it sorely needs redesign."

Keep those cards and letters coming!

UPDATE 4/30/06 Received this email regarding the radio station's response to your concerns:
Sometime Friday a DJ from Alice was telling about an email received from "a little old lady complaining about our billboard". He went on to say: "...this is what I have to say to you.."and then made a sound like 2 gunshots. Amid uproarious laughter.

I'm speechless.

Victory in Montgomery on SB 197

I'm in Montgomery today, just finished with a public hearing on SB 197 in the House State Government committee. The committee decided to hold the bill so we could all get together and "work it out." The motion was made by Rep. Merika Coleman - thank you! This effectively kills the bill - there's not enough time left in the session now. Rep. Oliver Robinson, the chairman of the committee, was very helpful and supportive, as was Rep. Rusty Glover from Semmes. A couple of committee members voted against holding the bill over, but I did not catch who they were. I'll post a complete report when I get the committee report.

See my previous post for background on the bill itself.

Sen. Erwin spoke at today's meeting and the way I understood him, he did in fact intend for a billboard company to be able to rebuild a destroyed board even if local ordinances said they couldn't. He said that his intention was that if it met local requirements it could be rebuilt, but I believe he meant size restrictions,etc. Even though he wanted to "help" so-called mom and pop companies, the effect would have been for Lamar and the big dogs to be able to continue to defy local laws.

This is exactly why we opposed the bill. Most cities, especially in tourism-dependent areas like Baldwin County, are trying to prevent or limit billboards. We did not need a law that overrode what the cities are trying to do.

We have to be continuously vigilant - these billboard corporations are determined to do whatever they want, wherever they want, regardless of community standards. We'll keep up the fight - thank you to everyone who emailed the legislature and who is supporting our efforts!