As the battle over giant billboards in Los Angeles hits a fever pitch, so far the biggest buyers of illegal outdoor ads are dodging the bullet.
That would be the entertainment companies.
Though an eight-story ad in Los Angeles landed the building owner in jail on $1 million bail, Paramount -- which purchased the giant vinyl wrapping to promote "How to Train Your Dragon" -- won't be held accountable. (Paramount is distributing the DreamWorks Animation 3D animated film.)
“Paramount was assured that the site had all the appropriate permits and (sic) have promptly investigated any necessary steps to be in full compliance with all applicable laws,” read a statement released by the studio Tuesday.
"I don’t think the entertainment clients should or can be held responsible for illegal outdoor advertising because when we buy inventory, we buy it as 'legal' -- the vendor cites the locations are legally permitted," explained Kathy Hoinski, supervisor of outdoor advertising for Palisades Media, a boutique media agency that serves a number of entertainment companies. "It would be the vendor and/or building owners liability, in my opinion. I don’t know many buyers who would purposely buy an illegal unit because once it’s tagged illegal, the creative comes down immediately. The client then does not receive the full flight/duration, but is still charged for it."
With activist groups across the country -- and most notably, in Los Angeles -- griping ever-more-loudly about both legal and illegal outdoor ads that they say pollute their cityscapes -- and city officials beginning to respond to their cries -- the major studios and TV networks find themselves in the middle of a pitched battle.
“I would say 70-80 percent of the ads on illegal billboards in Los Angeles are for movies and TV shows. In fact, it might even be higher than that,” said Dennis Hathaway, president of the Coalition to Ban the Billboard Blight.
“The outdoor advertising business in Los Angeles could also be called just another marketing arm for the studios.”
Similar activist groups are fighting preponderances of illegal ads in New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Toronto, Hathaway said.
“But L.A. is considered to have the biggest problem,” he said. “We’re concerned about these guys turning the city into a ‘Blade Runner’ or ‘Minority Report’ vision, in which every open space is covered by an ad.”
Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich has recently gone down the warpath against unpermitted super-graphics.
Last week, Trutanich filed suit against 27 individuals and companies he accused of illegally hanging giant vinyl and plastic signs on the sides of local buildings.
In other legal action, the city has also done court battle with companies including Fuel Outdoor, which it has accused of putting smaller outdoor signs in unpermitted locations.
But none of the defendants named in any of this litigation have been entertainment companies.
“We asked that question to the city attorney -- Paramount and DreamWorks made the arrangement for the advertising, why shouldn’t they suffer?” he said.
