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A University of British Columbia Okanagan campus student who raised more than $3,000 for a pro-choice billboard is stumped on where to post her message.

Sophie Harms says she wants to create a billboard that says “Abortion is safe, normal and common” to counter the anti-abortion billboard messaging that peppers the Okanagan region.

Harms’ request to purchase a pro-choice billboard has now been turned down or ignored by all four billboard companies in the region.

Harms points out that though abortion has been decriminalized in Canada, there are still issues with stigma and access that prompt a need to counter anti-abortion messaging.

  • grte@lemmy.ca
    39·
    1 day ago

    She says a Pattison Outdoors sales representative was initially supportive of the idea but later said the billboard was “too controversial and they wanted to stay neutral.”

    Pattison Outdoor faced publi[c] pushback after running anti-abortion ads in Alberta and Nova Scotia in 2018, Victoria in 2019 and Manitoba in 2024.

    Infuriating. And a reminder that donations to politicians isn’t the only way the wealthy can put their thumb on the scale wrt money in politics. One wonders whether billboard buys from certain political parties (but not others) would be, “Too controversial.”

    • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      8·
      23 hours ago

      Pattison Outdoor has been in other stupid battles as well.

      In 2011, Pattison Outdoor Advertising disallowed Beyond Coal, who had bought billboard space on one of the company’s billboards, from displaying an anti-coal message until references to the nearby Westshore Terminal, where 700 train cars of coal are loaded each day, were removed.

      In 2012, Greenpeace was engaged in talks with Pattison Outdoor Advertising to display a billboard advocating renewable energy sources, but the company abruptly terminated the discussions. When asked why the billboard would not be approved, the company refused to provide a reason. In 2014, Pattison Outdoor Advertising allowed Friends of Science to place a billboard opposed to the scientific consensus on climate change, which prompted organizations like Greenpeace to accuse Pattison Outdoor Advertising and the Jim Pattison Group as a whole of applying a double standard and censoring environmentalist messages.

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattison_Outdoor_Advertising

    • ikidd@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      24 hours ago

      They just took an anti buy in 2024 after 2 other “controversial” campaigns, but won’t take a pro-choice today. See if they’ll take another anti and sue them if they do.

        • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
          7·
          23 hours ago

          Unfortunately yes, because they are a privately-owned company.

          I wish the feds would enact laws that safeguarded abortion care.

        • ikidd@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          19 hours ago

          To make a point and get media attention. I know it’ll go nowhere, but it’ll be embarassing for them to be defending the hypocrisy.