Transit says no to animal ads on buses

[Cath10 0]

January 14th, 2010

St. Catharines Transit has banned a series of ads on its buses, using its veto clause to deem them unacceptable.

Niagara Action for Animals had arranged to purchase ads on three city buses asking people why they love pets, but eat other animals.

"Why do you love one but eat the other?" reads the slogan over a picture of a glossy-eyed puppy and an equally adorable piglet. "Choose compassion. Go Vegan," concludes the ad. There's one with a kitten and a chick, and a third with a dog and a calf.

The ads are based on a similar campaign that ran on TTC subway cars last year, said Kimberly Costello, a Brock University PhD student who is a member of NAfA.

Costello said the concept was designed by an agency called Mercy for Animals, which gave the Niagara group permission to use the ads.

But NAfA tamed them down, Costello said, removing a series of images of animals in factory farming situations.

"They are meant to be challenging people and getting them to think about the similarities between the animals we call companion animals, or pets, and those we use for food," Costello said. "It's getting people to think critically about issues.

"There were no gruesome pictures at all, and it bewilders me why they were disapproved," she said. All advertising on St. Catharines Transit Commission buses, bus shelters or benches is contracted out, said Dave Sherlock, the transit commission's general manager.

Bus advertising is handled through Brantford-based Street Seen.

"Advertisers pay them to put advertisements on buses throughout Ontario," Sherlock said. "In the contract we have with them, there is a veto clause," he said. "Any content that could be deemed controversial, we have the right to veto."

Sherlock said city buses are publicly-owned vehicles "and we don't want any controversy. We don't want anything on them that is going to create a public outcry. I am not talking one or two complaints, but controversy is not good for business.


Suite : http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2260836

[Cath10 0]

Pour une fois j'ai lu les commentaires... certains auteurs ont fait de tres bons points!

[Animal 0]

Oui, certains ont de très bons points: j'aime bien celui-là:

« I think the ads would have been a pleasant alternative to all the McDonald's and other fast food ads telling people to eat unhealthy food. I don't see the problem with suggesting people consider alternatives to meat. What are these meat-heads so afraid of? »

Qu'est devenu la liberté d'expression dans notre pays?