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The enormous photo of the distinguished young African-American man—dressed for success, as the saying goes—has disappeared from the front of the hangar at the entrance to the Oakland International Airport, along with the inferences that his success was linked to the type of gin he drank. 

Its replacement billboard—featuring a bottle and glass of cognac—is scheduled to be gone in a few weeks too, when its contracted run ends, to be replaced by automobile ads. 

For the time being, at least, the City of Oakland has won the battle to keep from being the home of one of the more conspicuous outdoor liquor advertisements in the country. But at least one city official says there is no guarantee that the victory will be anything but temporary, and alcohol industry watchdogs say that Oakland is still relatively powerless to do much more about the liquor and beer billboards still existing in the city. 

The problem began some two months ago when the original gin ad—as long as a football field— appeared on the airport hangar, visible above the flat marshes and runways to anyone driving to Oakland’s airport. It hit a nerve in a city where both violence and the image of violence is a continuing problem, particularly alcohol-induced violence among young African-American men. 

“I don’t want the biggest sign in the world for alcohol in Oakland,” said City Councilmember Jane Brunner. 

Joan Kiley, founder and director of the Berkeley-based Alcohol Policy Network of Alameda County, said that the problem with such high-profile billboards targeting young people in communities of color is the obvious. 

“It creates an environment where this targeted community feels like drinking is the ‘thing to do,’” she said. “That becomes a public health issue. When you see the kind of health disparities that are present between the larger community and the African-American community in particular and communities of color in general, you realize that these are communities which don’t need more encouragement to do something that is unhealthy.” 

It’s also an issue of crime and violence prevention, she added. 

“How many urban youth are currently locked up because of crimes committed under the influence?” she asked. “And there are plenty of studies on the direct connection between alcohol consumption and violence against women. It’s an astounding number. The alcohol companies should be sensitive on these issues. But they have a different set of priorities than we do. Ours is public health. Theirs is sales.” 

Kiley praised Oakland’s billboard-prevention efforts, saying that the city’s billboard regulation ordinance is a model across the country. 

“It came to being a decade ago because of the hard work of community advocates, but also because a lot of far-thinking businesses got on board after they realized it was in their overall best interest to have a better business climate in the city fostered by a better city image,” she said. 

Billboards at the airport are regulated by the Board of Port Commissioners, a seven-member body nominated by the mayor and approved by the City Council. In September, when the hangar ad issue first surfaced, Brunner got the council to pass a resolution to begin negotiations with the port to turn over billboard regulation to the city. If those negotiations fail, the resolution authorizes the city to begin drafting an amendment to the general plan to allow the billboard regulation takeover by statute. 

But Brunner concedes that even with the city in control over billboard regulation, the city is powerless to stop alcohol billboards on airport hangars. 

“Legally, we can’t ban them,” Brunner said. “Oakland has a statute that prevents alcohol billboards in proximity to churches and schools, but that’s all we can do. It’s a First Amendment issue. What we have is the power of persuasion. We can encourage the owners of these locations not to put up alcohol billboards. And we’ll be able to know in advance when and where these billboards are planned. One of the problems is that they’re just springing up, without the council’s knowledge until someone sees them on the road.” 

Meanwhile Oakland—which alcohol industry watchdogs say has one of the more stringent anti-liquor billboard ordinances in the country—can still do little more to reduce the number of liquor billboards around the city. 

A driving trip north from the airport towards downtown Oakland on I-880 shows beer billboards most conspicuously clustered near the High Street exit, an area of nagging violence and prostitution problems in the city. A little further north on the freeway, a driver can easily see a beer ad on a city street near the entrance of Laney Community College. 

Laurie Lieber, director of media advocacy for the Marin Institute, an industry watchdog, said getting rid of existing liquor and beer billboards is a challenge. 

“Even in situations where the city has the power to stop these billboards from coming in, the existing billboards are often grandfathered into the law, so you can’t put them out,” she said. “That’s why we counsel cities to be very careful about what types of advertising they allow on their streets. It’s difficult to go back, sometimes, and correct a problem even if cities believe they have made a mistake.” 

Lieber agreed with Brunner that billboard regulation has become a free speech issue. 

“But the First Amendment is not an absolute right,” she said. “And considering the public health aspects of the problem, you’d like to think that these alcohol ads would be the equivalent of yelling ‘Fire!’ in a crowded theater. It’s advocating something that is not in the best interest of the public health. But in recent years, the courts have broadened the concept of freedom of speech from purely political speech to become a protection for commercial speech.” 

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