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href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/major-ad-firm-outfront-media-censors-free-ahed-tamimi-billboard">https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/major-ad-firm-outfront-media-censors-free-ahed-tamimi-billboard</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Major ad firm Outfront Media censors "free
Ahed Tamimi" billboard</h1>
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<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/ali-abunimah">Ali
Abunimah</a></span> <span class="field field-blog">-</span>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single"
content="2018-01-22T16:37:04+00:00">22 January 2018</span></span>
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<figure id="file-55916" class="media
media-element-container media-figure file file-image
file-image-jpeg"><source media="(min-width: 72rem)"><img
class="media-element file-figure"
src="https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_800w/public/2018-01/outrfront_mockup.jpeg?itok=60yw-jLn×tamp=1516638737"
alt="" title=""><figcaption class="group-caption
field-group-html-element">
<p>Outfront Media’s staff created this design for a
billboard calling for the release of Palestinian
girl Ahed Tamimi, but it was rejected by corporate
executives who claimed it was an “attack ad.”</p>
</figcaption></figure>
<p>A major US ad firm is refusing to put up a billboard
calling for the release of <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ahed-tamimi">Ahed
Tamimi</a>, the Palestinian girl who is in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israeli-military-court-refuses-release-ahed-tamimi">indefinite
military custody</a> for challenging Israeli
occupation forces on her family’s property.</p>
<p>Ahed, 16, was <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israeli-army-brags-about-arresting-teenage-girl">detained
in a night raid</a> in the occupied West Bank
village of Nabi Saleh a month ago, after video
circulated showing her and a cousin slapping and
shoving two heavily armed Israeli soldiers following
an incident in which a soldier had <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israelis-shoot-boy-head-take-revenge-against-his-family">shot
in the head</a> and seriously injured their
15-year-old cousin.</p>
<p>Outraged by a perceived insult to their occupation
forces, Israeli leaders are vowing revenge against the
Tamimi family and are subjecting Ahed, her mother
Nariman and cousin Nour to <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/listen-how-israel-couldnt-bear-ahed-tamimis-slap">military
trials in kangaroo courts</a> with a <a
href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/06/04/israel-50-years-occupation-abuses">near-100
percent conviction rate</a>.</p>
<p>“Nothing that Ahed Tamimi has done can justify the
continuing detention of a 16-year-old girl,” Amnesty
International <a
href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/01/israel-release-teenage-palestinian-activist-ahed-tamimi/">stated</a>
last week. “The Israeli authorities must release her
without delay.”</p>
<h2>Billboard design</h2>
<p>Ahed’s persecution by Israel has rallied supporters
of Palestinian rights all over the world, and a
businessperson in Chicago’s western suburbs wanted to
help draw attention to her case with a billboard at a
busy intersection.</p>
<p>He contacted the ad firm <a
href="https://www.outfrontmedia.com">Outfront Media</a>,
one of the largest in the country, that used to be
known as CBS Outdoor.</p>
<p>The staff in the firm’s Chicago office were very
helpful, according to the businessperson who did not
want to be named due to concern about harassment his
family could face for his speaking out about
Palestinian rights.</p>
<p>They negotiated a price: $5,000 plus a $350 design
fee to place a large ad at the intersection of Naper
Boulevard and Ogden Avenue in the town of Naperville.</p>
<p>The design staff helped come up with an ad that would
be printed on a huge vinyl sheet and displayed to an
estimated 139,000 passing drivers during the ad’s
four-week run.</p>
<p>Outfront’s staff said the ad might even stay up
longer for free if no one else bought the billboard
right away.</p>
<p>But the trouble began after the Chicago office
submitted the design for approval to headquarters in
New York: the ad was immediately rejected. So
Outfront’s designers in Chicago created a second,
toned-down version, which the client approved – the
company’s mock-up can be seen above.</p>
<p>However that design was also overruled by the New
York office.</p>
<h2>“Attack ad”</h2>
<p>In a 19 January email seen by The Electronic
Intifada, Michael Gapastione, an account executive in
Outfront Media’s Chicago office, wrote the
businessperson telling him that the New York office
“answered me back with second ad and said would NOT be
approved.”</p>
<p>“I asked for clarification. Response was that this
was an attack ad and won’t be approved,” Gapastione
added. “I even asked if we just put FREE AHED with
picture and she said NO.”</p>
<p>A request for comment has been sent to Outfront
Media.</p>
<p>The businessperson told The Electronic Intifada that
initially he had been informed by the Chicago office
that Outfront accepts “political ads,” but he added
that “the corporate office in New York rejected
everything.”</p>
<p>In fact, Outfront Media <a
href="https://www.outfrontmedia.com/newsroom/pressreleases/pages/out-of-home-advertising-is-winning-votes-this-election-season.aspx">actively
seeks to capture</a> as much as it can of the
billions of dollars spent on political advertising in
the US.</p>
<h2>Defending anti-Trump billboard</h2>
<p>In September, the company came under pressure to
remove a billboard near the San Francisco Bay Bridge
that called to “Impeach Trump” and showed a scowling
image of the president.</p>
<p>The political group that paid for the ad <a
href="https://couragecampaign.org/press-releases/breaking-outfront-media-pulls-%E2%80%98impeach-trump%E2%80%99-billboard-bay-bridge-courage-campaign">said
it was initially told</a> by Outfront Media that the
ad would come down due to “multiple complaints,” and
slammed the company for “censorship.”</p>
<p>But Outfront Media told reporters this had been a
“miscommunication” and the company <a
href="http://www.ktvu.com/news/impeach-trump-billboard-comes-down">confirmed</a>
that the ad would stay up for its <a
href="https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Impeach-President-Trump-Billboard-Bay-Bridge-Stay-Up-448226883.html">scheduled
run</a>.</p>
<p>In the end, despite whatever pressure it faced, the
firm was prepared to allow Trump critics to have their
say.</p>
<p>But in Outfront Media’s view, supporting children’s
rights now qualifies as an unacceptable “attack ad” –
if those children are Palestinian.</p>
<p>Calling on Israel to respect their rights is beyond
the pale for the multibillion dollar corporation –
even though 20 members of Congress are concerned
enough by Israel’s military detention, abuse and
torture of Palestinian children that they are <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/intifada-starting-us-congress/22741">backing
a bill to curtail it</a>.</p>
<p>There are currently <a
href="http://www.addameer.org/news/palestinian-child-prisoner-population-doubles-over-last-three-years">350
Palestinian children in Israeli military custody</a>.</p>
<p>“For $5,350, I could not even purchase my right to
free speech granted by my First Amendment rights,” the
disappointed businessperson quipped. “This is America,
the land of the free and brave.”</p>
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