A massive online campaign demanding that a Chicago advertisement agency remove an offensive pro-BDS billboard calling on motorists boycott the Jewish state has borne fruits, as the agency eventually relented and agreed to take down the offensive sign.
Posted on the major highway I-294 by the Lamar Advertising agency, the huge billboard directed motorists to visit stopfundingapartheid.org, a rabid anti-Israeli organization. It read in massive letters: “Boycott Israel Until Palestinians Have Equal Rights.”
An outpouring of Facebook users gave one-star reviews to the Lamar Advertising agency’s page and the company was inundated with phone calls. After initially refusing to apologize on late Thursday and defending the “First Amendment rights” of its customers to advertise calls for a discriminatory boycott, Lamar Advertising relented on Friday.
“Serious questions concerning the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign (SEAMAC) billboard in Chicago have been raised in numerous contacts to Lamar Advertising,” wrote the company in a Facebook post.
“Since Advertiser responsibility is central to Lamar’s Copy Acceptance Policy, we have tried to contact SEAMAC to discuss these issues but have not received a reply to our telephone and email messages. Therefore we have decided to remove the SEAMAC copy as soon as possible.”
One Facebook user Uri Pilichowski last Thursday called on locals to call the company and protest, urging: “let’s get it down before Shabbat.”
Thanks to the pressure of Israel supporters, that goal was realized and the company agreed to remove the discriminatory ad on Friday.
