Pro-life organization shifts billboard campaign after being ‘soft canceled’

The pro-life organization Pro Life Across America (PLAA) is known as “The Billboard People” for the group’s billboards strategically placed throughout the country, that remind passersby of the humanity of preborn children. Now, those billboards are in jeopardy, as its billboard provider, has suddenly started charging premium rates for the ad space,  “soft canceling” the organization.

In an interview with National Catholic Register (NCR), PLAA’s director Mary Ann Kuharski said that last September, the billboard provider, Clear Channel Outdoor, suddenly moved the nonprofit into an “advocacy” category, which meant it would be required to pay higher rates at nearly triple of what it was previously paying. Kuharski called the move “discriminatory” and said that the Clear Channel did not seem to care that PLAA is a nonprofit with a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status and is “nonpolitical.”

“We asked the minute they came down with this different policy, ‘Well, what has changed?’” she said. “Our ads haven’t changed. Our approach hasn’t changed. We’re not ever advocating legislation or anything that would be overtly political. We got no answer on that.”

The billboards often show a large picture of a baby, along with a tagline and an invitation to dial a hotline number. Prior to the change, the billboards were placed in nearly 40 major cities across the country, resulting in hundreds of hotline calls.

“We don’t argue,” Kuharski previously told NPR of the billboards. “We don’t use harsh words. We never even use the word abortion on our billboards.”

She told NCR that because of the new cost and the worry that an “advocacy” label would jeopardize the organization’s non-profit status, PLAA no longer rents the billboards from Clear Channel. Instead, the organization is now forced to use alternative methods to reach abortion-minded women, including other billboard venues, expanded internet, radio and TV streaming ads. There’s no question, though, that the shift away from its major billboard provider has impacted its reach.

“These are major cities [where] there are no other billboard companies that are right directly in the city. I can go around those cities with some of the other billboard companies, but it’s a big loss,” she said.

For now, many of the billboards still seen across the country are operated by family-owned billboard providers; several billboards in San Diego are sponsored by a donation from a local pregnancy resource center. Kuharski said that though there has been a shift away from Clear Channel, the message remains the same.

“I just think [we should do] anything we can do to attract people’s attention, to get [people] to stop and think, ‘This little kid can suck his thumb. He has fingerprints at nine weeks; a heartbeat, 18 days from conception.’”

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