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Published on Thursday, 10 May 2012 13:24
Rod Blagojevich will be riding on Chicago buses after all. Earlier this week, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) rejected advertising from Merlin Media radio station WIQI-FM/FM News 101.1. The ads for the interior and exterior of Chicago buses, featuring jokes made at the expense of convicted felon & former IL Governor Blagojevich, were turned down by a CTA supervisor, claiming they were "offensive." Now, that decision has been reversed and the ads will soon be appearing on & in Chicago buses.
After a report first exclusively appeared
HERE on Chicagoland Radio & Media Tuesday, pressure was placed on the CTA to explain their decision to not allow two humor-based ads to appear on their buses, while other ads, which could more easily be described as offensive or questionable, already run. Not to mention, the CTA has been short on funding lately and could use revenue from local advertisers, especially since it just announced that it will be purchasing up to 100 new hybrid diesel-electric and clean-diesel buses this year.
Late yesterday, CTA President Forrest Claypool overruled the decision to reject Merlin Media's advertising. On top of that, he has ordered a complete reconstruction of the advertising review process and policies, so that the guidelines will be much clearer and not allow this type of embarrassing confusion to happen again.
Here are the two formerly "offensive" ads that the CTA has now allowed -- the top one being an exterior bus billboard and the lower one being an interior bus sign card:
