As the song goes, “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas.” Which means a silly controversy has erupted over something holiday-related. This year’s first kerfuffle is brought to you by King County Metro Transit.
(Because the situation really is off-the-charts on the Doh! scale, it is hopefully resolved by now. But that doesn’t let Metro off the hook. As the song goes, “Here we come a-wassailing.”)
On Thursday, the Seattle Times reported that King County rejected a local organization’s plan to buy ads on the outside Metro buses that urge people to “Buy American” and “Shop Locally” because the sentiments are “too political.”
A Seattle-based nonprofit, TAP America, wants the ads, which would be concentrated on routes through shopping districts of downtown Seattle and Bellevue, the Times reported. The group was set to spend $8,000 to run the spots on 45 Metro buses for the next four weeks.
The message reminds holiday shoppers that they can do something positive for the country by thinking about how they spend their money, Richard Tso, TAP America’s executive director, told the paper. The rejected ads read: “December is Buy American Month, Shop Locally, Join Seattle’s TAPamerica.org.”
King County officials (somehow) decided the message violates county policy against ads that express a viewpoint on “matters of public debate about political, religious or social issues.”
“The concept of ‘Buy American’ is an issue of both political and economic debate,” Metro spokeswoman Linda Thielke told the Times.
Really? Perhaps in France a “Buy American” campaign is controversial. But, uh, we live here.
Metro is wary because last year it approved a group’s request for ads that said, “Israeli War Crimes. Your Tax Dollars at Work.” After this made news, officials were flooded with more than 6,000 calls in opposition, Crosscut reported. The ads were canceled. (The ACLU and the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign are considering whether to appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals after a previous court decision in favor of the county.)
That the philosophy to “Buy American” and “Shop Locally” equates politically with a century of Mideast conflict, or with any politics, is difficult to buy. It would seem Metro has overreacted and overcorrected.
On its website, Metro has photos of advertising on its buses. One reads: Montana/Gateway to Yellowstone. Another is a “full wrap” display for Hawaiian Airlines.
If urging people to shop locally is a political statement, then ads urging people to spend money out of state are very political, indeed. Time to honk your horn to the tune of the beloved carol, “What Controversy Is This?
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