I suspect Planned Parenthood was behind the scenes complaining.
Via Boston Globe
The advertising giant Clear Channel Outdoor on Thursday took down the billboards it donated to a campaign against gun violence, arguing that its support had been “misconstrued as a political position” by gun-rights advocates who mounted an online protest against the advertisements.
The billboards, which went up across the state just this week, said, “We’re Not Anti-Gun. We’re Pro-Life. Massachusetts Gun Laws Save Lives,” and featured a Bushmaster XM-15 assault rifle with a white surrender flag in the barrel.
Initially a full-throated supporter, Clear Channel owns 25 of the 36 billboards used for the campaign organized by the group Stop Handgun Violence. But amid criticism from firearms owners, the company said that it did not intend to take sides on gun control.
The company, along with another donor, said it was willing to sell the campaign ad space instead.
“This campaign has become politicized and misconstrued as a political position by our company, so we have taken it down,” spokesman David Grabert said in a statement.[…]
The other companies that donated space for the billboards were Logan Communications, Total Outdoor, and Outfront Media, according to Stop Handgun Violence.
Carly Zipp, a spokesperson for Outfront Media, said the company offered to sell the group space it had initially donated in Peabody. Stop Handgun Violence said it would not pay.
“As a general rule, Outfront Media allows issue-oriented messaging to be displayed on its advertising platforms on a space-available basis,” Zipp said.
It was unclear whether other organizations would also pull the ads. Multiple requests for comment were not immediately returned.[…]
Peter Ubertaccio, director of The Joseph Martin Institute for Law and Society at Stonehill College, said it’s “hard to imagine” that Clear Channel didn’t see this controversy on the horizon when they agreed to run the ads.
“I don’t know how you could arrive at any other conclusion, or fail to see that it’s fairly controversial,” he said.
Ubertaccio said gun rights are such a contested issue that even trying to get into the conversation from a public health perspective invites a lot of political sentiments.