Even Paid Speech Isn't Free
This post is not about me, or complaining about what happened to me. I'm doing fine. This post is just another snapshot of life in this nutty country.
You may have noticed the ad here in the HuffPo for my new record of songs about Bush administration members. The title is "Songs of the Bushmen," the cover art is a smiling GW with a bone through his nose (this exposition is necessary for the story to come). Neither HuffPo nor TVNewser, a blog covering, what else, TV news, had a problem with the ad.
But we also bought some ads on digital billboards, the kind that change messages every few seconds, in Chicago, and on digital screens in coffee shops and other retail establishments in LA and SF. The goal was to make that cover image kind of ubiquitous, as ubiquitous as it could be on a small marketing budget. The billboards were owned by Clear Channel, the good people behind Rush Limbaugh and other forms of bad radio, and those folks were ultra-eager to take our money and suggest that we spend more with them in other cities -- until they saw the artwork. At which point, the tone changed from oleaginously friendly salesman to angry schoolmarm -- the art was "not acceptable," a curt email informed us. There was no explanation for the grounds of unacceptability -- wrong kind of bone? -- just the loud sound of the only provider of digital billboards in Chicago slamming the door.
Meanwhile, out west, this hip little startup in San Francisco, DaNoo, was equally happy to sell us space on their digital screens. They were happy with the first week, in which just the art appeared, with no explanation. They even wanted to use our campaign as some sort of success story for their outfit. But suddenly, when the name of the record (and my name) appeared on the art, they pulled the plug. Their "venues" -- i.e., store owners -- had said some patrons had complained.
Let's review: GW Bush has an approval rating lower than Richard Nixon on his worst day in office. If a normal risk-averse corporation looked at those numbers, it would intuit that now, if ever, would be an okay time to let such ads be shown. And, yes, Clear Channel can easily qualify as, in Donald Rumsfeld's felicitous phrase, "dead-enders." But this hip little company, with digital screens in hip little places in hip little SF and LA?
Maybe this is just another application of what I'm pleased to call Shearer's Law -- the more people you seek to talk to, the less you can say to them.
To read more about this on HuffPost, Click here.
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Sounds like we're still living in the Bronze Age of Radio.
First - sorry about all that. Would they accept a sign that says, "Ea a oe's?"
Second - I love Shearer's Law. Absolutely spot-on.
I'm just guessing, never having seen the ad, but there seems to be a definite racial component to this decision by DaNoo (I think we can all agree that ClearChannel is fully in the bag for Bush). A photo of ANYONE, especially a white person (and especially especially this particular white person), with a bone through his/her nose might suggest some sort of minstrel/A
Loved the Condi song you debuted last week on Le Show. Judith's voice was superb, as always.
having never seen the ad, you really can't say anything about it, can you?
"Shearer's Law -- the more people you seek to talk to, the less you can say to them."
... or as it's known by its contrapositive here in the Home of the Homeless, "Those with everything to say talk only to themselves
...the antithesis of Shearer's Law--the less people you seek to talk to, the more you can say to them.
The term "Bushmen" and the bone through the nose are as cluelessly offensive as Robert Grossman's 'Babe Lincoln' cartoon (The Nation 2005) and the heavy-handed and unfunny New Yorker Obama cover. 'Bushman' is a term sometimes used to refer to the San people, who are native to southern Africa. A number of indigenous groups pierce the nasal septum and decorate it with available materials, as do some urban and suburban Westerners. Is the point of the cover and title to suggest that Bush is a "savage" or "uncivilized"? If so, you should have chosen another tack than to depict him as a "Bushman/men" with a bone through his nose like a Victorian cartoon of nonwestern native people.
Nobody gives a crap that you are mocking Bush, a president with record low approval ratings. That's not why some (many? most?) find the cover and title offensive. Depict him as a reptoid, have him emerging from a toilet, put a dunce cap on him. No problem. No, the problem is the term and stereotypical symbol (that is, bone in nose) you are playing with.
Oh, I'm sorry, are you being "meta" in your use of stereotypes, like Sarah Silverman and Dave Chappelle? My bad. But seriously, you're going to have to learn the same lesson that Grossman and the New Yorker did: when you play with stereotypes, be prepared if they are taken at face value.
So not only do you know who is and isn't offended by Harry Shearer, The New Yorker, The Nation, and presumably others, but you know who should and shouldn't be. Yet you somehow manage to impart this Olympian wisdom with such humility and grace. I pray only that our mere presence in this thread hasn't offended thee.
Great response. Your recognition of the truth made me read it twice. I doubt you offended Bateman. His factual analysis is great! Don't you agree?
Thank you, Mr. Shearer, for your interview on this subject on my XM Satellite radio show. Fans of yours can listen in at about the 21:00 minute mark here: http://rad
Harry, are you gettin picked on again? darn just like Jr High when you got teased for a small weenie.
Harry, What else did you expect? The corporations and their cronies have their heads so far up Bush's 'nether regions' that they can't see when the dawn comes. They would never want to make the hands that feed them mad now, would they?
Harry! I've been a fan of your work on the Simpsons for many years...yo
Clear Channel, however, can get bent, for all I care. If their HQ were to burn down tomorrow, I would smile. They've already ruined radio, and their support for that right-wing nutjob threatens to further infect our politics with new, more dangerous strains of anger and fear. It does not surprise me that they censor everything that comes close to them...but I'm disappointed you were caught in their dragnet.
I hope this sort of behavior causes you to rethink your business dealings with Clear Channel. The more people who stand up to their nonsense, the faster this country will move behind censorship.
Thanks for posting and good luck with everything!
Get the Freeway Blogger to give you some tips!
Wonder why there's been no problem with the horrible billboards in Orlando?
http://www
Unbelievable.
How the hell did they get away with putting that obscenity up in the first place ?
( Aside from the Rethug leaning State aspect ? )
It's a limbo game with these clowns... You know, ' How Low Can You Go ' ??
More to follow. -ralph
What can I say? Must be a RepubliCon thing. It's perfectly OK for the New Yorker to essentially libel Obama (a Democrat), in image, but it's NOT OK for you to display a humorously photoshopped image of the Preznit!
I'd like to say "Only in America", but one sees similar treatment in Zimbabwe and in Saudi Arabia and Egypt--all nations with no love for democracy or Free Speech
I don't think the New Yorker cover was on any of these electronic billboards. And you can bet that the owner(s) of DaNoo aren't Republicans either.
Saw you on KTLA this morning Mr Shearer - KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!
Clear Channel, a new oxymoron for the USA...; how about a corporate name change? There is OBSCENE OPINION, BELIGERENT BROADCASTING, RECTAL RADIO for starters.
I remember that art and I found it offensive. I can't stand that face.
It sounds like I'm kidding, but not really. I stayed away from HuffPo when that image was constantly greeting me, and I'm glad it's gone. Sorry, Harry, but ... yuck.
I, too, hate the sight of George Bush's self-satisfied, smirking face, even on liberal blogs. So I use Firefox, with the AdBlock plug-in installed, which allows me to right click on any image on a web page and send it to hell.
TBT - I looked up the def of oleaginous just to be certain. But the image of a salesman who is too transparently false to use actual Land O' Lakes when trying to butter you up was so striking when I read the HuffPo lede ... But I digress. You, sir, are a national treasure. Thank you for helping to keep me sane.
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