The Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board will be consider a proposal to allow Lowe’s to put up eight-foot banner ads in some Minneapolis parks in exchange for ”goods and services” provided for park improvements (A New Low(e): Ads Proposed for Minneapolis Parks).

The proposal includes Harrison, Parade, Loring, Hiawatha, Matthews, and Longfellow parks.

Can’t kids have some space free from marketing?

Hiawatha, Matthews, and Longfellow parks are each connected to a public school — that’s why Lowe’s would love to have large banner ads there. It’s prime space with a captive audience that would otherwise not be available to them.

But corporate advertising has no place in public parks.

Lowe’s is also asking for indoor signage:

This area brought to you by

Lowe’s
Let’s Build Something Together

These products and more
are available at Lowe’s.
For store information
and locations, please visit
www.lowes.com.

I understand that a company’s donation deserves some recognition. But why an ad? Why not a simple This area brought to you by Lowe’s? Wouldn’t that give Lowe’s the same credit without turning a public space into a suburban shopping mall?

Although it looks like many of the Commissioners are not supportive, it wouldn’t hurt to send yours a quick note.

Photo courtesy smile4camera.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 29, 2008 at 9:34 am and is filed under Public Space, The Problem, How Marketers Think. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.