Political ads: Who can place an advertisement QT54

Social media post/question:
Should student media allow political ads?

Guideline

Students make all content decisions, including those related to advertising, and maintain the right to reject any ads.

Student media do not necessarily endorse the products or services offered in advertisements. Students should strive to retain as much control of funds or services obtained from the sale of advertising, subscriptions or other student fundraisers as possible. All businesses should have a street address.

Stance:

As with editorial content, students should decide whether they will accept political ads. If they do, they should add in their ethical guidelines, “Student media (will) or (will not) accept political ads.

Reasoning/suggestions:

Not only should students decide what ads they will accept because it’s a best practice, they also should also because of a possible advertiser First Amendment issue.

According to SPLC, “The First Amendment does protect commercial speech, so an advertiser can bring a First Amendment claim if he can prove that a government official (including a teacher or a professor at a public school) rejected the ad for impermissible reasons, such as disagreeing with its viewpoint.”

Students may opt to accept political ads. If they do accept political ads, then students should also consider whether to contact those opposing the candidate running an ad to see if they would also like to place an ad.

Resources:

SPLC Advertising FAQs

Yeo vs. Lexington

SPRC: Advertising