SECEDE Billboard Campaign Hits Snag, Gets on Drudge Report

Alabama

The League of the South’s second billboard in Montgomery, Alabama was taken down over the weekend by Lamar Advertising.

Here are the reasons why I am not concerned:

1.) It is my understanding that the League is getting their money back. Thus, as long as the League has the money to pay for a billboard, it is inevitable that the second billboard will go up again … somewhere.

2.) The SECEDE billboard in Montgomery has already generated statewide publicity in two stories by Al.com. There is now an AP story circulating on Drudge Report.  I’m hearing that there will be even more publicity now that the billboard has been taken down under pressure. At the end of the day, the SECEDE billboard will probably go up somewhere else in Montgomery and will have generated more publicity for the League than the last billboard in Tallahassee.

3.) The League will consult with its lawyers and will file a lawsuit depending on their legal advice about the nature of the contract – a legal victory in court can be used to show the League’s supporters that it is willing to fight to defend their interests.

4.)  It is important to keep in mind that this is the third billboard that has been put up by the League of the South. The “Get The US Off The USS Titanic” billboard on I-75 in south Georgia didn’t generate any publicity from the media. There have also been other billboards which haven’t been sponsored by the League which didn’t attract any publicity from the media.

As I pointed out in “The Logic of Street Demonstrations,” the mistakes of the past are valuable because we gain more practical experience. We learned from the south Georgia billboard that we needed a more provocative billboard and setting. We learned from other billboards that we needed a simpler message.

This experience has underscored the importance of developing a legal arm of the League of the South to defend our interests in court. It has demonstrated that the “SECEDE” message is provocative enough to generate significant publicity. It has also demonstrated the importance of developing stronger institutions and will certainly spur the evolution of the League further down that path.

5.) We have learned that not everyone who is League member or sympathizer is inclined toward being an activist in the spotlight at public demonstrations.

The billboard campaign is an easy way to channel the energies and resources of League members and sympathizers who prefer to remain in the background. The League has now shown how the resources of these people can be channeled into generating publicity that will grow the Southern Nationalist movement.

The overarching goal of the billboard campaign and the street demonstrations is to take the “movement” off the internet and back into the real world.