in World News Pattison bans pro-life group’s billboard because it “creates too much controversy”
By Clayton DeMaine, True North Wire
A Canadian billboard company cancelled a contract with a Manitoba pro-life group, saying that the requested image “creates too much controversy” and that the company received “a lot of backlash” for similar designs in the past.
Susan Penner, the executive of Life Culture, a pro-life organization in Steinbach, Man., told True North that her organization intended to use the same image it used in a campaign with Pattison Outdoor Advertisements the previous year but was shot down this time.
The image featured a pregnant woman cradling her belly. The caption read, “Celebrate the gift of life!” and included Life Culture’s website address. Penner told True North in an interview that the billboard was meant to remind people, in a time of widely accessible euthanasia and abortions, that “life and pregnancy is a gift.”
Emails from November between Pattison Outdoor and Life Culture provided to True North show that the billboard advertiser initially agreed to provide advertising space for Life Culture in December for Christmas at two Winnipeg locations and one in Steinbach.
Within less than a week, Penner received an email informing her that Pattison would no longer provide the service to the pro-life group.
“Susan, I regret to inform you that my compliance department will not allow your creative to post on our inventory,” the email said. “The category of the content is pro-life/pro-choice, and it simply creates too much controversy for us.”
When Penner asked what had changed, as the group had used billboard space last year in Steinbach, Pattison Outdoor replied that it had “encountered a lot of backlash for similar designs” posted throughout Canada in 2024.
“Our compliance department has had to expand our restrictions,” a Pattison Outdoor representative said in the email. “We cannot take the risk of public complaints.”