Philip Anschutz, who the BBC described as having "a reputation as one of the hungriest of US corporate vultures", is currently using his wealth and power to support a slick ad campaign appearing on 10,000 billboards, in hundreds of movie theaters, and on nearly a thousand TV stations across the country. The Foundation for a Better Life (FBL)--the non-profit entity that officially produces and distributes the ads--has no contact information on its website, forbetterlife.org, but a series of posts and comments to the portland indymedia open publishing newswire uncovered the connection between Anschutz and FBL:
[ original post | first follow-up | second follow-up ]

The ad campaign features billboards with words such as "Courage", "Unity", and "Compassion". Illustrating each value is a photograph of a person, an catchy, explanatory tagline, and the phrase, "Pass it on". The commercials, similarly themed, "are being seen on average over 2 million times per day on seven networks and over 900 TV stations... [and] are also being shown in all United Artists, Regal and Edwards movie theaters totaling over 6,000 screens across the country" according to FBL. The ~6,600 screens of those three chains account for nearly 20% of the U.S. total. The campaign was put together by Jay Schulberg (who created the "Got Milk?" ads), Nancy Fletcher, President and CEO of the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) and Gary Dixon, President of FBL. Dixon courteously declined an invitation for an interview with a portland indymedia contributor, saying that FBL would prefer to emphasize "the message and not the messenger".

While some of the individual ads--for example, a Mother Teresa billboard with the phrase, "Reaching beyond yourself"--express positive messages with which few would argue, others--like the one showing emergency workers raising the American flag in the rubble of the World Trade Center with the words, "No setback will set us back"--are transparently pro-war. Though FBL's campaign was planned before the attacks on the East Coast on September 11, 2001, it was "expanded upon" after those events. The new additions are easily identifiable.

Philip Anschutz, until recently the 16th richest person in America, and still quite wealthy, has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Republican Party and various GOP candidates in at least the last two Presidential election cycles. His oil and gas company, the Anschutz Exploration Corporation, had notoriously destructive intent against a sacred Native American site in Montana. His corporate empire includes a majority holding in Qwest Communications and ownership of several sports teams and arenas. Significantly, he also owns the United Artists, Regal and Edwards movie theater chains, where the FBL commercials are being shown. Whether or not FBL is paying for these slots is unknown. According to Outdoor Advertising Association of America, $10,000,000 worth of the cost of the billboard campaign is being donated by OAAA member companies. In other words, it is possible that this advertising blitz is costing FBL and Philip Anschutz very little money out-of-pocket.

Some of the billboards in the Portland area have been edited, clearly by those who disagree with their message. Several posts to the newswire have suggested further billboard liberation as a means of responding to the campaign. (portland indymedia does not endorse any particular political tactic other than the legal exercise of free speech.)

No other media outlet seems to have revealed the FBL-Anschutz connection yet. Here at portland indymedia, the story was uncovered by several different individuals who researched and posted their findings to the open publishing newswire. This collaborative process showed that--not only can anyone become the media--but that we can also do a better job than the so-called "professionals" who were asleep at the wheel once again with an important story.

Newswire posts: [ "Foundation for a Better Life?" | "Foundation for a better life: more" | "Foundation for a better life, even more" ]

Websites: [ Foundation for a Better Life | Billboard Liberation Front ]