Sunny Greenpeace billboard banned by Canadian media company

Nice billboard, eh? Not according to Pattison Outdoor in Edmonton. According to The Globe and Mail’s Report on Business, Canada’s largest out-of-home advertising company “advised Greenpeace Canada that it had rejected its ad about oil spills in Alberta”.

Edmonton is the major economic centre for Canadian oil and gas industries. The ad was in response to a recent pipeline spill that contaminated Alberta’s Red Deer River. Pattison, however, offered no comment as to its reasons for rejecting the ad.

Posting the single billboard for one week would have cost Greenpeace $2,800. The resulting earned media will doubtless be worth much more. Which leads any skeptical person to wonder if the billboard — like shock campaigns created so often by PETA — was designed to be banned.

But surely, this was no shock billboard. It’s so positive and tame. Nonetheless, Greenpeace Mr. Hudema says the organization was surprised its ad was rejected, given the relatively tame content of the billboard design. However, Greenpeace’s Mike Hudema told the Globe that he is “hoping its rejection will spark further discussion”.

Indeed.

Thanks to Andrea Lyn for the tip!