The banner planes may be gone...

Three years ago at our local vball court at 24th St. in Hermosa Beach I finally snapped. For years I had been aggravated by the summer squadrons of loud obnoxious planes towing banner ads. They were getting worse by the year, and to be honest there were days when I could not hear my self think. I would head home to nap in the backyard after losing every game I played (I never win) and there they were, using our Hermosa airspace to make their turns to make another pass. I had wondered for some time how society let these planes completely pollute these beautiful beaches at the prime of the year (not that pollution knows seasons). The more people were at the beach the more planes were in the air. It is a numbers game. The more people are completely annoyed the more successful the advertisers were.



I knew with all the environmental awareness in the air that this old tradition of sky advertising was a dinosaur, but they were bolder and louder by the season! I could not believe the audacity of their assault, even pointing air blasters to pierce the air out the side door. Beaches just seem by nature to be the one place in our life where we hear the wind, waves, little children and feel at peace with our environment.



A light went off in my head that day. I had been so frustrated by environmental issues that were just too large and encompassing to solve. I saw them all around us, whether it was the bay pollution or the quality of our air. I saw this issue as one of the biggest pollution issues facing our beaches (noise, the visual I could live with), and knew this one had a start and a finish.



I contacted SIMA (surf industry manufacturers association) and they politely told me their plate was full. I argued that this issue was a National one, and that the press they got and the changes they could make by addressing it would make a huge difference. Their plate was full. I had an idea, "Boycott Sky Advertisers", that could be incorporated into hangtags and advertising. Their plate was full, and in actuality it was as they were addressing big hard to solve issues (hats off).



At this point I gave up on the National attack and just said, "fuck it, I will do it myself and see what happens". Beckers ran ads starting the next week in a local paper condemning the pollution of these planes and urging people to "BOYCOTT SKY ADVERTISERS". The local publisher of the paper we picked for our campaign said he had never had such a backlash on any ad he had ever run. Seems everyone was fed up, had enough of this noise crap, and was indeed ready to boycott these advertisers. He said we had hit a serious nerve.



To go back a bit, my research showed there was not much we could do about the planes (I was partially wrong) so I decided to go after the advertisers-that was the light that went off in my head.



So, we ran ads three weeks straight at the end of the summer while the air assault was at its climax and the shit hit the fan. We named names. We named the companies who had polluted the beaches with their ads the week before. My feeling was these companies had no idea where their ad money was going but they soon would and I am guessing that was right. The Boycott was the talk of the town and folks were into it. My guess is that the advertisers said crap, why piss people off with ads when we can buy billboards. My guess was that these advertisers were good corporate citizens and had no idea what the impact of their ad dollars were having on our beautiful beaches. I was guessing the big decision makers were not at the beach reading the paper and hearing the backlash, but their employees were and would tell them.



Well, that was the end of the summer, but before we knew it it was another season and the LA Times was calling for an interview about this issue. Other papers ran it too. The plane and ad companies cleverly laid out their defense of the practice. There were big meetings with the FAA, ad companies, plane guys, airport authorities, and all the local So Cal cities. Hermosa Beach and specifically Peter Tucker took the lead on all this, as they had had it too and had thought their hands were tied until the local response forced them to research the idea and they realized there were options. http://theenvelope.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-outthere1-2008aug01,0,6156949.story?page=2



This weekend on plane flew by. One. You just take for granted how peaceful that beach is, what a wonderful break in your week until that one plane came over. But, I am not complaining. It was one, and last year and the years before there would have been twenty.



If you are reading this blog and they are flying your skys, know you can make a difference by speaking out. I only know the South Bay here, and it would appear they are gone.



Cheers
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