Lamar's Religious Management Would Rather Lose Money Than Sell Billboards to Atheists
Give Lamar Advertising kudos for being even-handed even if it’s no good at winning new business: The company censors liberal billboards just as much as it censors conservative ones. Lamar declined to sell space to an atheist who wanted to put up an ad alongside Alabama’s I-20 that said simply, “Imagine No Religion,” according to The Birmingham News:
“It was offensive to me,” said Tom Traylor, general manager of Lamar Advertising in Birmingham.
Let’s put aside the fact that Lamar — a publicly traded company — is desperate for all the revenue it can get right now; its sales are down 13 percent this year and it has laid off 400 staff. (Let’s also put aside the fact that Mr. Traylor’s God is apparently so flimsy that He can be successfully challenged by a billboard.)
The fact is that Lamar rejects advocate business from both sides of the aisle. BNET readers know that Lamar took down billboards of a group criticizing America’s funding of Israel and refused to sell space to a group that believes President Obama was not born in America. It also went along meekly with a Canadian city that forbids religious advetrising on buses.
Given the dire situation Lamar’s finances are in, perhaps this company might want to grow a pair and allow people to pay them money to advertise the occasional message with which Lamar’s shaky-faithed general managers disagree.
- See BNET’s previous coverage of religious advertising:
- Lamar Refuses to Lower Billboard Prices, Making It Ever More Dependent on Legal Strategy
- Sotomayor Once Ruled in Lamar’s Favor in Billboard Case
- Lamar Lobbies to Keep Taxpayer Subsidies for Billboards in S. Dakota
- Lamar Sues Detroit Over “Unconstitutional” Billboard Fees
- Lamar, CBS, Clear Channel Ban Obama Birth Certificate Billboards
- Lamar Takes Down Billboards That Criticized Israel
- Christians Strike Back Against Atheist Advertisers
- Christians Complain About Ads That Say “There’s Probably No God”
Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.
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