Ban This!
Posted by Fred Jandt
Editor, Mass Transit
I scan a lot of news stories on a daily basis in an attempt to keep up on what’s going on around the country in the transit industry. Usually I’m inundated by a ton of stories discussing similar topics: funding, strikes, budget shortages. You know the usual stuff.
Every once in a while, though, something pops up on the radar that sticks out more than the rest. About a week ago, a story came out that an advocacy group made a bid for Denver RTD to remove advertisements for Mature-rated games from its system.
In an RTD board meeting, Parents Television Council Denver chapter director, George Robinson, addressed the board, saying, “Our public transportation network serves more than half the residents of Colorado and is doing them a disservice with its tacit approval for the dangerous content in the Mature-rated video games that are advertised throughout the system. I’m here today to remind Chairman Chris Martinez and the board that they have a responsibility to act in the best interest of those who voted you into these important positions. You can take a step towards being a better steward of the public good today by no longer accepting advertising from violent video games that can have long-term harmful effects on the youth in our community.”
Let’s take a look at this a little bit. First of all, these are mature-rated games. There is a rating system in place for video games these days in case you haven’t purchased one in a while. The rating system is pretty good and helps parents decide what and what not to let their kids play. The system pretty much mirrors the television rating system for programs. As a parent, there is a strict rule in my house that my kids aren’t allowed to play certain games at all, certain games without supervision and other games they can play by themselves. This is all based on the rating system.
Here’s the thing. If one of my boys were to ask about Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (the advertised game at the crux of this debate), I would say no, that’s a rated M game and you can’t play it. Even the advertising says the rating right on it.
And who made RTD the “steward of the public good”? They are a transportation company whose number one job is to transport people from Point A to Point B and all points between, and their number two job is to make sure they have enough money to do job number one.
Another example of these “public do-gooders” enforcing their will upon a transit agency was the story that broke late last year about the Got Milk? campaign that included cookie-scented strips on the back of the cardboard ads. These ads were placed in bus shelters and removed within a day of being put up because of complaints.
Now, the idea that you need to freshen up the scent of a bus stop is absurd. I’ve been in enough stops and stations across the country to tell you that the smelly bus stop is an anachronism. Most stops and stations smell either clean or have little to no identifiable smell at all. Sure, those in large cities will tell you that there are those smells in some stations, but considering all of the stations in the system, that’s far from the norm.
That said, the complaints leading to the smelly ads being pulled were just ridiculous. They included worries of allergic reactions (to a scent?!) and that they could be offensive to the homeless who can’t afford to buy cookies.
Huh?! I would like to see how much advertising was pulled to quell the ridiculous complaints of these “Good Samaritans” and how much money was lost in the process.
Sure, it’s just an ad here or an ad there, but maybe if these good-hearted folks looked for new ways to fund transit, or just supported it more themselves, there wouldn’t be a need for advertising on the system at all.
Thanks for reading the MT Position, updated every Thursday.
March 1st, 2007 at 1:54 pm
Amen. It is time we stopped trying to protect ourselves from ourselves. The fact that many parents these days are complete losers at the job doesn’t mean we have to ban everything that might be adult rated or offensive. These groups need to get a grip.
March 1st, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Fred -
Many of the films advertised on vehicles and in shelters are also for mature audiences. Moving beyond the video game example, does that mean that movie ads could also be subject to the same scrutiny?
March 1st, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Hi Fred,
Having the responsibility for controlling the content of advertising to the general public is an awesome challenge! At the Detroit People Mover, common sense prevails. No tobacco or alcoholic beverage ads are permitted due to our proximity to churches, per City zoning ordinances. Likewise, we will not allow provocative (lots of flesh) advertising in, on or around our trains. That does not mean however, that a bar or lounge that features scantilly clad women dancers can’t advertiser with us — as long as they don’t show the merchandise or reference nudity, etc. in their ad copy. Until public funding of transit stops, and systems are self sufficient from ridership revenues alone (yeah - right), the need for advertising revenue will continue and (hopefully) flourish.
March 1st, 2007 at 2:44 pm
How right you are - you did your job as a parent and established boundaries. It’s a pity other parents don’t follow your example - if they did there wouldn’t be any need for a misguided group to demand the transit system be the “steward of the public good”
As for removing an ad because it’s offensive to the homeless - thats just plain ridiculous.
March 1st, 2007 at 3:38 pm
I agree with your position. There is no reason to expect Denver RTD to pull the advertisements, espically when the games have a rating clearly marked. Advertisements for R rated movies are not banned, neither should these.
March 1st, 2007 at 4:51 pm
If the game was Grand Theft Bus…I doubt it’d be advertised via the Transit District.(Afterall, advertising is images/sound that illicit some form of thought by the viewer/listener.) I agree parents are lame and to blame for all that is wrong these days..> (and I am one…singly so and try to keep the flood of offensive from my child). This case is but a sample of a larger bombardment in society…Anna and Britney, et.al.
March 4th, 2007 at 10:07 am
It’s tough getting revenue, I say go for it.
March 7th, 2007 at 9:49 am
We should not be doing any advertising on our equipment except for public service announcements. Our image should be important enough to us that our primary focus should be on our branding, not the car dealer down the street. We had advertising here in Kenosha and we did it in. Final straw for me was a bus wrapped to look like a pickup, though I have harbored these feelings about advertising on our equipment for several decades.
On the money matter, we sell our souls for chump change in the big picture. Brown would not want to have FedEx on the side of their trucks and I have yet to see an American Airlines plane decked out to look like Southwest Airlines. Here in Kenosha, when we had the debate, one of the persons that questioned my on this was an offical at Snap-on-Tools. I asked why they closed a plant instead of asking Mac Tools to advertise on their trucks. Case closed. We are the only folks who have routinely sold our souls for a few bucks because someone won’t just fund the system adequately. Now we do it with our stadiums rather than having the pride to do it right and then fund it, and then name it after the team or City. We have made the tax word so “bad” that we make horrible policy decisions daily these days rather than the investments our communities sorely need. Especially in the area of public transit. Only country in world with a single mode dependency locally and single mode dependency between cities.
Just my thoughts on this one.
March 8th, 2007 at 11:08 am
From the opposite end of the argument, I believe the transit systems responsilbility is to provide a clean, comforatble ride, at the lowest possible price. Not everyone likes ads on buses, they they help keep bus fares and taxes low. Of course, we have a good taste clause in our markets, but the ads in question here would be run for sure. Some folks are not happy unless they have something to complain about. Good luck!
March 9th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
The ads on public transportation vehicles are a great way to bring Post 911DAY imperatives like preparation for Peaking Oil & need for energy sustainability to the attention of the public. Lenin’s derision of religion as “the opiate of the people” can be updated to speak to the electronic gadget craze of this time & place. And not only battery-fed throw-aways. There is a paradox here: the better the ability to inform, the less our society seems to know about verities.
We hop down rabbit trails when we get hung up on lines like “we don’t need to be protected from ourselves”. That is not the real problem. We have trouble as a society with self-control, largely because we have been indoctrinated with a special compound of self-indulgence & consumerism made possible by cheap energy. It seems off topic to say this until we get basic understanding that electricity (from whatever source) and petroleum have given us lots of spare time. That is about to change, ladies & gentlemen & undecideds.
The reason we lower our standards for advertising is not a good one; generally, passenger rail & bus transit is too damn underfunded to be a good travel mode for families. A viscious cycle, a downward spiral, say it a number of ways. Soon, we really MUST come to an understanding as a nation about what is important to survive as a viable society. If energy is the root of war, as it demonstrably has been since World War One, then we are tragically overdue in acknowledging that this is so. And make some connections with our spending choices & habits, the cause and effects on foreign policy regardless of which party is in office.
If the discussion shifts from what should be banned to actually prioritizing ads by message & content, then we are on a firm foundation both constitutionally and regarding national goals & imperatives. Ads seen in a WWII streetcar or bus or train were heavily weighted to fuel conservation, advice on how to buy defense bonds, and the rest of the space was local food products, stores and businesses; emphasis on necessities, few vanity ads. Analyse that carefully, please. Let’s see what fits now- is we is, or is we ain’t, entering an era of energy conservation and dire need of changing our transportation methodology?
Accepting ads against our better judgement (read consciences)? Nothing could speak more clearly to APTA and each and every savvy transit executive & line employee -of the need to bring this country’s leadership, public, corporate and civic organization & chambers of commerce, to full cognitive awareness of imminent transportation emergency. Freedom of expression, you dig? Once this movement to transport energy awareness is under way, ads from FEMA, the US Treasury (Energy Independence Bonds), along with the bread & butter local brick & mortar firms, begging for marginal advertisers won’t be an issue.