White Supremacists Infiltrate Automated DOOH

 

By Amber Larkins, OOH Today

Saturday a series of automated digital billboards posted messages and images filled with hate speech to honor Hitler’s birthday. White Lives Matter Michigan took credit for the postings on X.

Warning: the images in this article are highly offensive.

Billboard4Me, a company owned by Roland Outdoor, is an automated billboard-buying service responsible for the ads. They claimed on Facebook that, somehow, these ads made it through their filters. Not in an official press release or statement, but in a comment on an April 19th post encouraging Mother’s Day billboards.

On Facebook, someone commented that the postings were “a great AD for your company (this is sarcasm, btw),” to which the company responded, “The billboards you are referencing were regretfully posted as the messaging was discrete enough to make it through our filters. They were immediately removed upon discovering their true meaning. We have since taken action to increase message screening. We do not support any nazi propaganda whatsoever and are appalled that this happen. We have also reported the group to Twitter (X) regarding their hate messages. We are also working on unifying messages to spread love.”

Do we believe that automated filters are to blame? The parties involved did not return our multiple calls by press time. Do they not know who is buying the ads from them? Are there no human checks in place? If this is a standard we follow as an industry, then that is problematic.

The story has gone viral on Reddit. Though all of the original posts have been deleted, the comments are still viewable. Some commenters on Reddit have said to call out the billboard company, as they are complicit.  Some commenters directed others to contact the Michigan DOT to lodge complaints.  While the messages were bought through billboard4me.com, the actual inventory is owned by 5Star Outdoor. Our Industry does not need this type of advertising or bad press. This affects us all from many perspectives. Legislation is the last thing we need to intervene.

Some Redditors hypothesized that the billboard owners and operators are the white supremacists.

However, some Redditors are willing to give 5Star Outdoor and Billboard4me the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps the billboards were compromised. After all, they are digital. “Even the most racist billboard owners don’t want to deal with national press,” writes Grandpas_Spells.
This ‘free speech’ (as one OOH ‘leader’ surprisingly referenced the ads on a phone call in our research of the story), after we consulted with attorneys knowledgeable in the free speech arena, could bring about investigative charges of hate speech. If this was a mistake, then Media owners need to be extra careful not to display messaging such as this. There is nothing brand safe about this OOH, and it could cause significant lost dollars, damaging our industry. Diligence must lie with all parties involved, including the billboard owner and OOH automated buying service.

WLM Michigan posted the images, including a racist depiction of a young black man asking him to go back to Africa.

There was also a creative celebrating a birthday, which depicted a man in front of a mountain shaped like Hitler. Coded messages in the post show that White Lives Matter Michigan posted the signs. The initials of those well-wishing spell out WLM. “Uncle Adi” is Adolph.

The third billboard creative depicts the anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. White. This sign contains WLM codes of 88, which means “Hail Hitler”, and “14” is shorthand for the white supremacy slogan, according to Reddit.

If this vitriolic advertising was indeed an accident due to automation, then it begs the question: Is the OOH Industry prepared for automated execution? One bad player can taint us all. This type of creative getting through the cracks in our Industries’ automated software makes clear that some of its players have not adequately laid the proper groundwork for automated buying.

Does this blind spot in automated systems translate to OOH being not brand safe? As the election looms and more people filled with hate look for ways to make their ideologies known, what can we do to prevent this from happening again?

What are your thoughts?

This story is still developing. A check of 5Star Outdoor social media showed no comments related to the WLM postings. We phoned 5Star Outdoor Billboards owner, Joe Oram for comment. ‘Oram’s mailbox, as one can imagine, is full, and no message may be left.’

The only social reference we could locate by Billboard4Me is a Facebook comment as referenced above. We left several messages to TastyAd, Billboard4Me, owner Dave Roland, and TastyAd CEO Shane Hutton for their side of the story. We received no return phone call. We welcome a call from any of the participants involved.

Just after this piece was completed for publication, we received an email from Billboard4Me repeating the nearly same message as on their social media, ‘regretting the posters message’. That email is shown below. The irony of the pitch in Billboard4Me signature below, “We’ll make ’em go viral…” is likely not what they had in mind.