Controversial Advertisements

As an advertising student at Temple University we all all required to take Morality, Law, and Advertising. To be completely honest I wasn’t sure what to expect from the class and all together wasn’t that thrilled to be taking it my last semester of my senior year. However, being almost half way through the semester I have learned so much about theories and legal issues many of which I didn’t realized could be applied so closely to advertising. I also found myself looking more critically at certain issues.

Today while browsing advertising news stories I was caught off guard by an article on the Huffington Post website entitled, D.C. Metro Anti-Muslim Ads To Be Posted Monday. After reading the article I was shocked at just how relevant it was to my class.

In mid-Septemeber there were controversial ads put up in 1o NYC subway stations stating, “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad.” Originally the ads were rejected however in court the judge cited First Amendment rights. The controversy is that many believe these ads are supporting Islamophobia.

In the article Ron Meier of the Anti-Defamation League stated, “We support the court’s conclusion that the ad is a form of protected speech under the First Amendment, yet we still strongly object to both the message and the messenger. We believe these ads are highly offensive and inflammatory. Pro-Israel doesn’t mean anti-Muslim. It is possible to support Israel without engaging in bigoted anti-Muslim and anti-Arab stereotypes.”

These advertisements are now being put up in the D.C. Metro as well. The ads that are paid for by the American Freedom Defense Initiative are sure to continue to stir up some heated opinions after being vandalized in NYC. Check out what the people of New York City had to say about the ads and let us know how you feel about this controversial advertising issue as it continues to take on yet another city.

https://youtu.be/xFeeBJtjUwg