Clear Channel, the media monopoly that funded several of the war rallies during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, has sold billboard space to an ad campaign in Minneapolis-St. Paul that, well...

Don’t Vote’ billboards anger activists

A smattering of billboards have sprung up in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area with the simple message: Don’t vote. The billboards, owned by the advertising and radio conglomerate Clear Channel Communications, have drawn the ire of local activists. Fifteen of them are concentrated in areas with high minority populations. This from the registration-restricted Pioneer Press.

A series of billboards around the Twin Cities that brazenly declare “DON’T VOTE” have angered civil rights activists.

Fifteen of the billboards have sprung up in Minneapolis, St. Paul and its suburbs in the last few days. Several are in areas with large minority populations, including the Phillips neighborhood in Minneapolis, leading the NAACP and other groups to criticize even the suggestion that citizens shouldn’t exercise the right to vote.

“This is a highly sensitive election season, and to put it in areas like the Phillips neighborhood, that’s a minority community that’s been disenfranchised enough,” Brett Buckner, NAACP branch president in Minneapolis, said Friday. “I don’t care what kind of campaign this is, that community’s been through enough.”

The billboards are owned by Clear Channel Communications Inc. Lee Ann Muller, the company’s general manager for outdoor advertising in Minnesota, wouldn’t say who is paying for the billboards, but said it’s a “teaser” campaign and its full meaning would become clear soon.