Ackerley Rejects Group's Ad Campaign -- Anti-Tobacco Ad Called Inflammatory

Two months after an uproar led Ackerley Outdoor Advertising to publicly state it would run anti-smoking campaigns on its billboards, the company has again refused to run an ad from Tobacco Free Washington.

This time it turned away the "Same Names" campaign, in which a retired Spokane lawyer and ex-smoker named R.J. Reynolds says, "Smoking kills. Don't buy cigarettes."

Last year, Ackerley refused to run an ad that pictured a group of children dancing around a campfire with a camel roasting on a spit, said Dr. Michael Lippman, president of the health-education group Washington DOC (Doctors Ought to Care). That ad's caption read, "The only acceptable way to smoke a camel."

In an Aug. 30 letter to Barry Ackerley, chairman and chief executive of parent Ackerley Communications, Tobacco Free Washington members complained that, in July, Ackerley Outdoor Advertising showed interest in running the "Same Names" ad in Tacoma, but then declined to run it because it was a conflict of interest to its tobacco clients. Tobacco Free Washington members said they were willing to pay full market rate for the ad and that there was space available in Tacoma at the time.

In August, the letter continued, another Tobacco Free Washington member approached Ackerley about running the ad in Seattle, but was told that the ad was inappropriate. The Ackerley sales manager said Ackerley would consider running a different anti-tobacco ad when space became available in November.

About 17 percent of Ackerley's billboard sales in Seattle and 14 percent in Tacoma come from tobacco advertisers, said Randy Swain, president of Ackerley Outdoor Advertising.

"Our concern is that they're heavily advertising cigarettes toward kids and have a monopoly on the media, and they won't let anyone else express opposing views," said Lippman, who signed the letter to Ackerley.

With more than 1,800 billboards in Seattle and Tacoma, Ackerley dominates local outdoor advertising market.

In June, an Ackerley spokeswoman said the company would run anti-tobacco ads if space was available. But Swain said the company reserves the right to approve the text and artwork of all the ads it runs, and he chose not to run the "Same Names" ad because it was deemed inflammatory.

"The negativity was what we didn't like about it," he said. "We support ads promoting a healthy lifestyle, but we won't allow ads that attack companies that are selling lawful products."

He said the refusal had nothing to do with Ackerley's tobacco clients. He said he has not talked to Tobacco Free Washington members but would work with them to run alternative anti-smoking ads when more billboard space becomes available in Novemeber.

Lippman said, however, that he was not sure if Tobacco Free Washington would try to develop another ad.

"It's frustrating to develop a campaign and have it squashed," he said. "We'd like to get our message out."

Swain said Ackerley has not run a Tobacco Free Washington ad in the three years he has worked there.

The "Same Names" Campaign, however, has been accepted by Pridemark Outdoor Advertising in Spokane, Lippman said. Sun Media in Tacoma will also run the ad on about six billboards starting in November.

"It's a freedom of speech issue," said Bruce Krivosha, Sun Media's general sales manager. "Just like with any other advertiser, we reserve the right to check the copy and make sure it's not in poor taste. We might not let them put some content up, but what they're asking us to do now is not that."