Comcast nixes animal-welfare ads

By Cynthia Hubert -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Wednesday, November 2, 2005
Story appeared in Scene section, Page E1

Jennifer Fearing sold her piano recently and decided to donate some of her windfall to one of her most passionate causes: promoting vegetarianism.

Fearing contacted a national nonprofit organization called Compassion Over Killing and offered to underwrite the costs of airing advertisements in Sacramento that decry the treatment of farm animals. She wrote a $2,600 check to the animal group, which negotiated a deal with Comcast cable company to air the ads on MTV four times a night for a month.

Comcast cashed the check. But the ads, which show graphic images of animals housed in cramped, filthy conditions in slaughterhouses and "factory farms," and urge people to adopt a vegetarian lifestyle, never aired in Sacramento. They have been shown in other markets across the country.
"We were told they were rejected. We were not given any specific reason," said Erica Meier, executive director of the animal group, based in Washington, D.C. "We were very surprised. We have never had any similar complications." Only one company, in Alabama, has refused to air the ads, but no money changed hands in that case, she said.

Erica Smith, spokeswoman for Comcast in Sacramento, said Tuesday she was looking into the matter. The ads may have been rejected, she said, to allow staffers to evaluate claims of animal mistreatment. If the company gets proper documentation, she said, the ads might be reconsidered.

Meier said Comcast never asked her group for documentation. "They rejected them without explanation," she said. "But we would welcome any opportunity to validate their content."

As a private company, Comcast has the right to reject advertisements it deems inappropriate or offensive. The company has said it will reimburse the group if the ads never air, but Fearing doesn't want her money back. She intends to bring the situation before the Sacramento Metropolitan Cable Television Commission, which is scheduled to hold its monthly meeting Thursday afternoon.

"This is something that I believe in very strongly, and I'm not going to roll over on it," said Fearing. She runs a local nonprofit group, United Animal Nations, that benefits animals, but she stressed that the battle with Comcast is entirely personal. "These ads are not obscene. There's no cursing in them. Are they violent? They just show where your food comes from. It never even occurred to me that they might be censored."

Rich Esposto, executive director of the local cable commission, said Fearing is welcome to appear before the panel and make her case. He questioned Comcast's handling of the matter but said Fearing probably has no legal standing to challenge the company's decision.

"It takes a willful, conscious, knowing violation of the regulations for me to bring enforcement action," he said. "Disagreeing with someone's politics and refusing to take their money is not illegal, although I would like to know more about this from a fairness standpoint."

Meier, of Compassion Over Killing, said the two advertisements that Comcast initially agreed to air are "pro-vegetarian commercials" that "expose the horrors" inflicted on farm animals.

Among other things, the 30-second spots show chickens, alive and twitching, hanging by their feet in a slaughterhouse. The images were taken in Arkansas by investigators for the group, she said.

"It's simply the reality of where our meat and eggs and milk come from," Meier said.

The advertisements have been shown in more than 50 cities across the United States, including Los Angeles, Detroit, Boston, Denver and Fresno, she said.

In early October, staffers for Comcast in Sacramento reviewed the advertisements, negotiated a schedule to air them and accepted a check for $2,561 from the animal group, Meier said. "We had no indication whatsoever that there might be a problem," she said.

The first ads were scheduled to air Oct. 17 on MTV, which has the young-adult audience targeted by the animal group.

If Fearing loses her skirmish, she said, she may consider pitching the advertisement to another cable provider, even though the audience would be smaller.

"I want people in Sacramento to see this," she said.

To view the ads in question, go to www.cok.net/feat/mtvfall2005.php and click on "If You Knew."