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Article about ads at Ground Zero

Greg

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I thought it was interesting that the All For One Pass was mentioned here:

nytimes.com said:
A Reflective View at Ground Zero, With Images From Your Sponsors
By DAVID W. DUNLAP

Published: August 19, 2004

HAVING mournfully contemplated the place where 2,749 people perished on Sept. 11, 2001, you may be ready to plan your next ski vacation.

If so, you can read all about the All for One Pass, which entitles you - for as little as $349 - to admission at six New England resorts, including Killington and Mount Snow. The information is displayed about 25 feet from the viewing wall at ground zero, animated and bright as daylight, atop a stairway to the Cortlandt Street subway station. You can't miss it.

Nor can you miss the advertisements for Packet8 video calling ("Speak in color!"), for Z100 ("New York's No. 1 hit music station"), for ESPN radio ("The new sound for New York sports"), for the Big Apple Fest and for the city's 2012 Olympics bid.

They are shown on a 30-by-60-inch light-emitting diode screen operated by Clear Channel Outdoor under contract with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. There are about 70 screens in the company's Digital Street Network. Ads, which run in 60- or 90-second cycles, are broadcast to the screens through a wireless link.

In areas already chockablock with commercialism - Canal Street, for instance - these kinetic displays are at least congruent. The one at ground zero, however, stands out not only because it is conspicuous but also because its presence seems to affirm, on a small scale, that the redevelopment of the site is more about money than memory.

That suspicion is strengthened by the fact that the panels along the viewing walls that enumerate "The Heroes of September 11, 2001" have not been updated to reflect significant revisions made almost a year ago to the confirmed list of victims.

In October 2003, the office of the chief medical examiner removed 40 names because they duplicated those of known victims, were found to be fraudulent or represented people whose presence at the trade center on 9/11 could not be verified. Then in January, the examiner removed three more names, bringing the tally to 2,749.

But all 43 of the deleted names are still shown on the ground zero panels, from Jesus Acevedo-Rescand to the Vanvelzer family members, Barrett, Edward and Paul Herman.

Does the state care at least as much about honoring the dead - through accurately compiled rosters that are read by hundreds of visitors every day - as it does about accommodating the latest in advertising technology?

AS it turns out, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey intends to replace the memorial panels in time for the third anniversary, as part of a general refurbishing and revision of the informative and useful historical markers affixed to the viewing wall.

"We have already acquired the most recent list from the chief medical examiner's office and will be using that," said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority. Apart from an inquiry by this column, he said, no one had mentioned the presence of the apparent extraneous names on the viewing wall.

And no one has formally complained about the Clear Channel screen at ground zero, said Tom Kelly, a spokesman for the M.T.A. "We try to be as sensitive as we can to neighborhood concerns," he said, "always keeping in mind that revenue generated from advertising is put right back into the system for the benefit of all our customers." The Clear Channel contract will yield $15 million this year, Mr. Kelly said.

Clear Channel Outdoor said in a statement that the location was chosen jointly by the company and the M.T.A., in part because it had access to the wireless computer network and because it would "not contribute to a cluster of screens." The company, whose name is on the screen, said it had received no complaints about the Cortlandt Street display.

But it has not heard yet from Assemblyman Scott Stringer, Democrat of Manhattan, who has battled illuminated billboards in his Upper West Side district and vowed to do the same yesterday after seeing the ground zero sign for the first time. He said it showed a "lack of respect for everything the site represents."

"This is the wrong kind of advertising at the worst location in the city," Mr. Stringer said. "This is the one that must come down."
Source

Thoughts?
 

riverc0il

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how much money you want to bet that ASC paid NYTimes to specifically mention the ASC pass and some of it's details? is this detailed reporting or an ad spot in a newspaper? we will never know...
 
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