On a free ride: Behind every political billboard is an unhappy advertiser

Sindh Outdoor Advertisers Association to go to court against forced occupation of billboards


Our Correspondent October 21, 2014

KARACHI:


Behind many of the billboards emblazoned with beaming pictures of famous political and religious figures waving benevolently at passersby, are advertisers sweating bullets over the millions of losses they run into because of forced occupation of billboards.


The practice peaks every time there is a rise in political activity and now representatives of the Sindh Outdoor Advertisers Association (SOAA) have decided to approach the courts for a solution.

Former SOAA general secretary Amir Siddiqui told The Express Tribune that they wanted to solve the matter amicably, "but now we have to fight for our rights and source of livelihood in the courts."

Representatives of SOAA said that forced occupation of advertising spaces causes losses worth millions of rupees each year.

"Considering the rise in political activity over the past few weeks, we have lost millions of rupees due to forced occupation of our billboards," Siddiqui said. "We will move the courts on the matter in a few days."



The SOAA buys sites to erect billboards from government administrative bodies, including the district governments and cantonment boards, at their annual auctions. A site can be auctioned for as much as Rs3 million a year and payment needs to be made in advance. These billboards are then rented out to advertising agencies - a well-placed billboard can rake in as much as Rs0.3 million a month.

The stakeholders in this business are: the owners of these sites, the authorities that collect revenue for the government and clients that advertise on the billboards.

According to SOAA's statistics, there are around 3,000 billboards in the city that fall under the jurisdiction of the city government and cantonment boards. SOAA members said that they pay over Rs2 billion in taxes each year, most which is generated from Karachi.

"Almost all political and religious parties in Karachi forcibly occupy our billboards and do not pay the rent," Siddiqui said. There is a hike in the occupation of billboards especially during political campaigns.

A member of the SOAA, who requested not to be named, said considering the rise in political activity in Karachi and forced occupation of billboards, several corporations had shifted their ads from billboards to television. "We cannot stand up to these powerful people and have to suffer losses worth millions of rupees," he said.

"Our 20-day advertisement campaign was disrupted because of political advertisements in the past few weeks. We faced losses of around Rs6 million since most of the 20 billboards our company advertises on in the city were plastered with political flyers," the marketing manager of an insurance company said. "We tried to remove them but faced severe resistance," he said. "It's too late to resume the campaign now."

A large number of our most important clients in the market have already pulled back their planned campaigns, complained the chief executive of an outdoor advertising agency, requesting anonymity. "They [clients] see no use in spending money on advertising on billboards."

He said the owners of billboards, advertising agencies and advertisers preferred not to challenge political and religious parties out of fear that, they being well-connected, might try to hurt their business interests.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22nd, 2014.

COMMENTS (2)

Random Passerby | 9 years ago | Reply

Let's get rid of these billboards once and for all. They are a blight on the face of the city anyway.

Troubled | 9 years ago | Reply

Democracy is the best revenge. Jeeye Bhutto

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