Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants the SEC to investigate Tesla’s board, physicians are warning against hormonal birth control misinformation, and an abortion rights campaign struggled to place an ad in Times Square. Have a great weekend.
– Top billing. Earlier this month, the coalition Don’t Ban Equality, which rallies businesses to support abortion rights, began the process of placing an ad in New York’s Times Square. “Abortion access is every business’s business,” the digital billboard was set to read, alongside a list of signatories. The ad aimed to raise awareness in the lead-up to the Supreme Court’s oral arguments next week in a case deciding the accessibility of abortion pill mifepristone—which now accounts for 63% of abortions in the U.S.
But after submitting the ad to TSX Broadway, which runs short, affordable digital ads on its 18,000 square-foot billboard, the group received a rejection notice in early March. “Abortion and [sic] is a political topic in the U.S which is not allowed in our platform,” read the response, which Don’t Ban Equality shared with Fortune.
A gigantic billboard declining to run an ad related to abortion was perhaps not that surprising; other issues considered political, like support for Israel or Ukraine, are also often rejected. But what followed shocked Jen Stark, co-director of the Center for Business and Social Justice and Don’t Ban Equality leader.
Don’t Ban Equality connected with media buying firm Five Tier to place its ad elsewhere. The campaign changed the language of its ad from “abortion access is every business’s business” to “reproductive health is every business’s business.” And still the ad was rejected from all major digital billboards in Times Square; most didn’t give a reason. While Five Tier declined to confirm how many billboard owners it approached, Times Square’s official website lists 15.
“We were surprised it was so challenging to place the ad,” says Stark. “The rejections just piled up.”
This week, the campaign ended up placing its ad on a billboard at 54th and Broadway, north of Times Square. The billboard is controlled by a women-led company that requested not to be named, the campaign said. The ad ran on March 20 with the toned-down “reproductive health” language.
The coalition Don’t Ban Equality ran this ad on a billboard at 54th and Broadway, just north of Times Square, after being rejected by major Times Square billboards. Courtesy of Don’t Ban Equality Don’t Ban Equality has successfully placed ads with the word “abortion” in major newspapers including the New York Times and the Houston Chronicle without issue. But the real estate investors, landlords and media networks that control Times Square, with its massive crowds of people, proved to be more risk-averse. TSX, the first entity to reject the ad, didn’t respond to request for comment.
The ad that ran slightly further uptown was signed by employers including Bumble, Lyft, Match Group, Warner Music Group, and Yelp. Some of those companies helped pay for the ad, which was more expensive than initially intended.
To Stark, the incident showed how crucial it still is to advocate for abortion rights—especially among businesses, like those that control New York’s most famous center of advertising. “It’s hard to protect a right if brands can’t talk about it,” says Stark. “Especially in Times Square, which is the town square for brands to give voice to issues they care about.”
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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