A crowd-funding campaign to reinstate an Australia Day billboard showing two young girls in hijabs raised almost $170,000 and bought 17 billboards and seven full page newspaper ads around the country.
ASX-listed outdoor advertiser QMS pulled the original ad from a billboard next to a Melbourne freeway after a photo was shared online and sparked threats to both the company and the Muslim girls in the image – one of several rotating images featured in the digital ad.
Dee Madigan, executive creative director of Sydney ad agency Campaign Edge, launched a GoFundMe campaign to have the billboard reinstated, starting off with a modest goal of $20,000.
The campaign raised a total of $169,678 - which bought 17 billboards around the country, 7 full page newspaper ads and 500 street posters. $29,832.91 left over will be split evenly between IndigenousX and Children’s Ground.
“For all the cynics who said we were making money out of this, neither me nor my company took a cent,” says Madigan. “Not one cent. Not admin fees, no commissions, not nothing. Nada. Zip.”
Madigan says she’s been overwhelmed by the response and is thankful to the companies who supported the campaign.
“We did get a lot of hate from the crazies. Both APN and oOh!media were too scared to run the ad so we dealt with whoever we could find.”
[A spokesperson for oOh!media said: “oOh!media did not run the original Australia Day advertising campaign due to other pro-bono commitments for January. It also did not run the crowd funded campaign based on the advice of the OMA that there were very serious threats and its view that OMA members should not run the crowd-funded campaign. At all times the safety of our people is our top priority. oOh! abhors threats of personal violence or physical damage when they are made to the Out Of Home industry.”]
Madigan says GOA, Mapmedia and double D Advertising all ran the ad on their billboards. About a dozen brands including Ogilvy Melbourne, Fenton, Aston, JBT Lawyers and Australian Unions supported the campaign and news site Mamamia donated digital ad space.
The Outdoor Media Association (OMA) advised its members not to run the ads, saying it was concerned that the threats could escalate.
“I feel lucky to have lived long enough to witness positive change in the world,” OMA CEO Charmaine Moldrich wrote in a newsletter to members. “While I understand and sympathise with the sentiment behind the banner, seen at one of the women’s marches around the world a few weeks ago, that said, “My arms are tired from holding up this sign since the 1960s”, I do feel that we have a more equal world than the one I was born into. In today’s world, the five measures of inequality: Gender, Race, Religion, Class and Sexuality have shifted to create greater equality for most people (though, I know that there is still much work to be done).
“So, given this optimism, why then was my advice to our members not to run this hopeful, beautiful creative that is about bringing us together?
“Because the small and vocal minority made threats to the safety of our people. I was afraid that by ignoring these threats they would escalate. Two years ago, I would have been defiant, but sadly, the world has changed. However, choosing not to run this particular creative does not mean we are submitting. Like the Out-of-Home (OOH) medium, this one sign has become a catalyst for a conversation. And, the polarisation around this ad tells me that we need to talk.”
Madigan says: "Two girls celebrating Australia day should have never been political in the first place. It should have never been removed."