• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, January 15, 2015

While politicians and pundits fret about the privacy ramifications of online advertising technologies that few people understand, the world’s oldest advertising medium is still able to stir controversy and generate publicity through a simple, tried and true tactic: offending people.

This year, outdoor advertising is off to a strong start in the offense department, with billboards setting off a series of local media melees around the country, forcing outdoor advertisers to remove the ads. Even more interesting is what they say about the state of cultural and social mores around the country in 2015.

First up, there’s the ad for “reparative therapy,” better known as “ex-gay” therapy, recently installed on a billboard along U.S. Highway 75, outside Dallas, Texas. Although Texas is known for its conservative political orientation, the billboard generated such a backlash from the local community that the outdoor ad company, which owns the billboard, Impact Outdoor Advertising, decided to remove it earlier this week.

The company’s president explained he didn’t know what “reparative therapy” referred to, adding that the idea is “repulsive to me personally.”

Also this week, Dyar Outdoor removed a racially inflammatory sign from a billboard along Interstate 59 near Springville, Alabama, after just four days on display. The ad, which contained only text with scarcely any graphic treatment, asserted simply: “Diversity means chasing down the last white person,” followed by the hashtag “#whitegenocide.”

According to local news station WVTM, the sign triggered such an outpouring of disgust that Dyar Advertising had to disconnect its phones. The sign was removed Wednesday and the money refunded to the unnamed client.

It’s worth noting that an outdoor sign in Arkansas promoting an online White Pride Radio channel, paid for by the Ku Klux Klan and proclaiming “It’s Not Racist to Love Your People,” is still on display.

Moving on to a traditionally liberal area, the Bay Area might seem like a natural place for medical marijuana advertising, but the local sales teams of Clear Channel Outdoor and CBS Outdoor aren’t having it — at least not during work hours. The billboard giants have reportedly turned down $6,000 a month, offered by the local Oakland-based medical club Magnolia Wellness, for signs in the East Bay area. Ultimately, the club was able to get its sign displayed on a billboard owned by a local small business; it is currently touting the club’s services along I-580.

On a more positive note, San Francisco’s Municipal Transportation Agency, better known as Muni, has been happy to accept medical marijuana advertising on its transit ad network.