Maybe it really was the word “bomb” on the billboard that prompted Northwest Airlines to demand the removal of an anti-nuclear sign at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
Then again, maybe it didn’t want to offend any of the delegates to the upcoming Republican and Presidential candidates transiting through its terminal.
Northwest stands to lose a lot by falling out of favor with the powers that be. That whole deal to merge with Delta Air Lines might hang in the balance.
But it’s hardly the only travel company to get sensitive about ads. In San Francisco, the Dump Diesel coalition had its ads rejected from bus terminals by the city’s Municipal Railway a few years ago.
The ad in question featured a photo of a 1984 Muni Flyer bus spewing black smoke from its rear exhaust, with the copy, “Wanted: Off the streets of San Francisco . . . dozens of old, unhealthy, unreliable Muni diesel buses.”
Still, the airline industry seems to be embracing a double standard. On the one hand, it demands the right to free speech — either through ad campaigns that push the boundaries of decency or through its lobbyists at the Air Transport Association — while on the other hand, suppressing the rights of others to speak their minds.
Northwest’s actions certainly set a troubling precedent. The Associated Press reports that Kathleen Nelson, Northwest’s regional director, wanted the billboard scrapped because of politics — not sensitivity to post 9/11 passengers.
I just took a look and I can see how this would be offensive/scary to some (the concept of our city in the crosshairs of a nuclear bomb) and the strong anti-McCain message. Can we remove it?
Stay tuned for more examples of airline censorship. The political season is just starting to heat up.
