At Clear Channel Outdoor, our goal is not only to be a responsible member of the communities we serve, but also to take a proactive role in making our communities better places to live. Each year, Clear Channel Outdoor donates more than twenty million dollars worth of public service advertising space to nonprofit organizations throughout the country.
Clear Channel Outdoor’s digital billboard networks are being embraced by many municipal governments as the technology affords transportation agencies, police departments and other emergency services an extraordinarily effective means of quickly reaching people away from their homes with important public safety messages. Immediate notification of severe weather conditions, highway closures due to traffic incidents, and disaster preparedness needs.
Through an agreement with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), Clear Channel Outdoor displays “wanted” messages on all of its digital billboards across the country to assist in the apprehension of fugitives. In addition to “wanted” bulletins, the FBI is able to display high-security messages relevant to the communities in which Clear Channel Outdoor’s digital billboards operate. A protocol is also established for high priority “hot pursuit” messages to assist apprehending suspects in the immediate aftermath of the commission of a felony.
Since the agreement was formed in 2007, the initiative has led to the successful apprehension of 28 criminals as a direct result of information displayed on Clear Channel Outdoor’s digital billboard networks across the country. Current FBI and Clear Channel Outdoor success stories [pdf, 1.1mb]
Through a partnership with Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA), the Justice Department and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), Clear Channel Outdoor utilizes its digital billboard networks across the country to help recover abducted children through the distribution of AMBER Alerts. Clear Channel Outdoor’s digital networks enable law enforcement to display both text information and any available photographs on its billboards, which are located in high-traffic areas.
The AMBER Alert Program is a voluntary partnership between law-enforcement agencies, media outlets and transportation agencies to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child abduction cases. AMBER is an acronym for “America’s Missing: Broadcasting Emergency Response.” The program began in Texas in 1996 when Dallas-Fort Worth broadcasters teamed up with local police to develop an early warning system to help find abducted children, in memory of nine-year-old Amber Hagerman who was abducted and murdered in Arlington, TX, in 1996.
Clear Channel business units across the country sponsor and participate in a variety of community service projects each year to meet the needs of each and every community we serve. We call these initiatives Local Spirit. Local Spirit projects and events are executed by each of our offices independently to best serve local communities and the people in those communities. For more information visit Clear Channel's Local Spirit website.
Many of our public service campaigns were designed and/or produced at our studios. Creativity is the basis of our business. Clear Channel Outdoor employs some of the finest outdoor advertising artists skilled in the latest cutting edge graphic techniques. We help to get the word out.
Clear Channel Outdoor has a long standing relationship with the Advertising Council. Many of our public service campaigns originate with and are supported by the Ad Council.
Clear Channel Outdoor for over a century has been committed to delivering our advertiser's message to the consumer. This role in the arena of public discourse requires both a defense of free speech and a sensitivity to contemporary standards and concerns. Clear Channel Outdoor recognizes the need to balance these demands and therefore adheres to the following code of advertising practices:
