Forecast the FactsA group that campaigns against climate change skepticism says that Clear Channel rejected its billboard ad, an ironic play on an ad from the conservative Heartland Institute.
Chicago commuters have all the fun. Two weeks ago, there was the Heartland Institute’s Unabomber billboard likening a belief in climate change to psychopathy. This week, those stuck in traffic missed out on one larger-than-life retort to the Heartland campaign but will get to view another.
Forecast the Facts, a campaign devoted to accuracy and integrity in weather monitoring, had hoped to advertise in the exact same spot in an ironic format mimicking the Heartland ad. The Heartland billboard had depicted Theodore J. Kaczynski, who killed three people and wounded 23 with mail bombs, alongside the red-lettered words: “I still believe in climate change. Do you?”
Forecast the Facts, which is seeking to persuade corporations to end their donations to Heartland, would have presented the Pfizer pharmaceutical company’s logo alongside similarly imposing red letters reading: “We still support Climate Deniers. Do you?” Just below, Pfizer’s 2010 donation to the Heartland Institute, which a document circulated this spring put at $130,000, would be shown in small white print.
But it was not to be — at least not in that billboard location, managed by the Clear Channel Chicago global media and entertainment company. “We are not an arbiter
of positions in any way,” said Jim Cullinan, a Clear Channel spokesman. “But there’s also legal issues about fair use of images and what we can and can’t do with them.”
“There’s a big difference between a public image of the Unabomber and a specific trademark in terms of legality,” he said.
A spokeswoman for Pfizer meanwhile emphasized on Thursday that the company was not on board with all of Heartland’s positions. “We do not agree with Heartland Institute’s position on climate change,” the spokeswoman, Sharon Castillo, said in an e-mail to the Times.
Rather than a reprimand of Pfizer, Chicago drivers will be treated to a less tongue-in-cheek but pointed billboard sponsored by Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project. In more soothing shades of earthy green, it asks: “Who to believe on climate? Heartland … or EVERY National Scientific Academy in the world?”
“We really try to put things up that are appropriate,” Mr. Cullinan said.
Maggie L. Fox, chief executive of the Climate Reality Project, described the group’s billboard response as “a small reminder of who is really on the fringe.”
An organizer with Forecast the Facts expressed some disappointment with the rejection of its ad. “I’m sure that if we had wanted to run an ad that says ‘trees smell nice’ or something, they probably would have let us run that — but who knows,” said Brad Johnson, its campaign manager.
Pfizer is not the only corporation Forecast the Facts had hoped to plaster across the freeway. It also planned to call out Microsoft and
Comcast for donations to Heartland.
“Our goal was to highlight Pfizer and other corporations’ support of the Heartland Institute,” Mr. Johnson said. “The question to ask is whether these corporations are based on a foundation of science or on a foundation of profit.”
With their billboards rejected by Clear Channel, Mr. Johnson and his colleagues are considering alternative ways of getting out their message. “I’d like to say I was surprised by Clear Channel’s reaction, but I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing if I had faith in corporations’ abilities to do the right thing,” Mr. Johnson said.
Mr. Cullinan countered that Clear Channel had tried to negotiate with Forecast the Facts on the ads but that the organization was not willing to compromise on the design. “We have no dog in this fight,” he said.
E-mails forwarded to The Times from Forecast the Facts indicated, however, that the group had offered some alternative takes on the ads.
Until a different forum is found, Forecast the Facts’ rejected billboard will join the cyber ranks of Grist’s recent Heartland ad parodies, which include images of Pol Pot, Hannibal Lecter and Cruella DeVille.
Climate Reality ProjectA billboard ad from the Climate Reality Project that Clear Channel has agreed to display. The company said it would be up on Saturday.