It was pretty clear that Tony Abbott didn't want to
talk about climate change at the G20. And after a bit of public
shaming on the topic, we can see why. (Standing up for coal?
Really?)
It's no wonder climate change activists were keen to
advertise around Brisbane when the G20 leaders were arriving.
However, not all the owners of advertising space wanted to show
their ads. In particular, the Brisbane Airport refused to display
billboards with slogans about climate change because they were
'too political'.
Political advertising raises some interesting issues for
activists, publishers and the activists' targets. Here are the
top points to keep in mind, wherever you stand.
- Activists can't force publishers to run their ads. But they
can make a news story about a refusal to publish. That's
exactly what the climate change activists did in Brisbane. They
claim that instead of 7000 people seeing a billboard at the
airport, over 4 million saw the news story instead. A
