Tucson Region

'GodSpeaks' billboards returning to Tucson

Take a drive around Tucson and read the signs - God just might be talking to you. Those hard-to-miss black and white "Pray for Tucson" billboards around the city soon will be supplemented by another religious billboard campaign featuring quotations from God. The "GodSpeaks" billboards, first launched in the United States and funded by an anonymous donor in 1999, have been retooled and will begin appearing around Tucson during the next 30 days. "There was overwhelming response to the first GodSpeaks campaign, and everyone in the industry was waiting to see if in fact there would be a Part 2," said Dave Sitton, vice president of the Southern Arizona branch of Clear Channel Outdoor, which owns most of the billboards in the southern part of the state. "I don't think it will cause any harm," he said. "And, given the fact that most of us can agree between all the media there are a lot of negative images being projected to the community, something not negative might be helpful." The campaign was developed by The DeMoss Group, an Atlanta public relations firm, and has nine slogans, including: "It's a small world. I know - I made it," and "As my apprentice, you're never fired." The sayings all are signed "-God," and each is intended to represent a godly quality such as love, judgment and power, DeMoss Group President Mark DeMoss said. "The response has been very good. It has not had the explosive growth the campaign did in 1999, but I think then it was a novelty," he said. "The purpose is pretty simple - in six or eight words, turn attention to God, even if just for a moment, and stimulate thinking about God in a creative way." What makes the messages different from other billboards is that the viewer is not asked to join anything, buy anything or give money to anyone, DeMoss said. He added that his firm expects to produce new sayings every six months or so as long as the Outdoor Advertising Association of America remains supportive of using them as public service announcements. The trade group, comprising all the companies that own and rent billboards, successfully used the sayings as its national public service campaign for 1999, which put GodSpeaks sayings on some 10,000 billboards in 200 cities across America. The donated billboard space was valued at $15 million. The original 1999 "GodSpeaks" had 18 slogans, among them "My way is the highway" and "Keep using my name in vain, I'll make rush hour longer." The earlier campaign also appeared on billboards in Tucson. Sitton said two or three of the new billboards should begin appearing around Southern Arizona in the next month, and they will not replace the "Pray for Tucson" billboards. Those billboards, a local project of Sitton's, have been up for two years with a mostly positive response, he said. "If you listen to the news and read the news every day about our community, you realize divine intervention is necessary," he said. "There were some concerned atheists, but the billboards are on private land. Also, 'Pray for Tucson' is a wide-based invitation that's open to interpretation. People can respond any way they want." Sitton is a Christian but stresses that the messages are non-denominational. Indeed, even some atheists are not bothered by the public words. "There's no constitutional issue. America is all about free speech," American Atheists President Ellen Johnson said. "Though it seems maybe God is being misquoted, since no one can get a quote from God. They had to go to a marketing firm to make it up." Similarly, Erik Pierce, of the group Tucson Atheists, said the First Amendment clearly protects the "GodSpeaks" campaign, although his group wouldn't mind having some billboards of its own. Sitton said critics of the slogans have been few. "There is always tremendous feedback," he said. "It is virtually everywhere in the country. I am not aware of a single billboard company that is not part of the campaign. Everyone embraces it."