Ads Nauseam: To air or not to air?

There is an age-old question that asks “does the ends justify the means?” This comes to mind after ad that aired at one of the world’s most famous intersections was removed.

The Times Square Jumbotron’s owner, CBS Outdoor, pulled a video ad from the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) calling for a halt to deportations to Haiti. The video, which you can see below, shows the slogan: "The cholera epidemic in Haiti is killing thousands. Why is the USA still deporting people to Haiti?"

The company did not publish an explanation as to why it removed the fifteen-second video that aired once every hour at the so-called “crossroads of the world.” According to a CCR petition supporting the ad, however, the video was yanked because it was “too controversial.”

As was written in a post in the New York-centric blog Gothamist (no relation to this blog), the video shows an image of one Haitian deportee who died after leaving the U.S.:

The ad features 34-year-old Wildrick Guerrier, who was among the first to be deported since the earthquake leveled Haiti in 2010. Almost all the deportees in the first round were convicted criminals; Guerrier, who came to the U.S. as a teenager in 1993, was convicted of illegally possessing a firearm while working as a private security guard. After being deported in January of this year, he was incarcerated in a dirty Haitian jail, where he later died of an apparent case of cholera.

Thus, we pose the question at the top of this post to you: “does the ends justify the means?” Was the decision to remove the ad justifiable or not? Was it fair to pull the ad from the Jumbortron while other politically-charged ads have been allowed to run?

Let us know what you think by respectfully leaving a comment to this post.

Video Source - Center for Constitutional Rights via Blip.tv
Online Sources- Gothamist, New York Daily News, Salon.com, Center for Constitutional Rights