Banner Ad Airplanes: Screech or Free Speech?

Re “Cities to Banner Planes: Buzz Off,” July 22:

While reading your article on banner planes (accompanied by the near-constant droning of these airborne jalopies, by the way), I felt compelled to weigh in on the matter.

The impacted municipalities’ hands may be tied. However, the impacted citizens are free to address this.

A grass-roots solution to reduce the proliferation of this weekend blight is simply to not buy or use the products and services advertised on the banners.

If enough folks used alternatives not advertised on airplanes, we could see some positive results by next summer.

Jonathan Day

Laguna Beach

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This might not be the most important issue facing our coastal communities, but these planes are an annoyance nonetheless.

There is one particularly obnoxious biplane pulling a tequila ad that I have mentally shot down into the Pacific many times.

On weekends, when the idea of driving anywhere is just absurd, I like to sit out on my deck, three blocks up the hill from the beach, and practice finger-picking on my acoustic guitar.

But that’s impossible, because every few minutes one of these banner planes cruises by and drowns me out.

Of course, if I plug in my guitar and invite a friend for a jam session, the police are there within minutes, accusing us of disturbing the peace and threatening to confiscate our instruments. Obviously, big advertising agencies have more rights than individuals.

Ed Krebs

Laguna Beach

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The audacity of Laguna Beach Councilwoman Toni Iseman to try to restrict aircraft from towing banners over the Pacific Ocean borders on arrogance. It is an ignorant, abusive obstruction of free enterprise and an interference with individuals making an honest but difficult living whose skill could some day save her neck.

Laguna Beach and Huntington Beach are towns where most income comes from outside. These cities with their beautiful beaches bring thousands of people to these areas to have fun, enjoy the sun, the water, and yes, even the aircraft with banner advertisements.

Advertising products in any way, form or fashion is the American tradition. The process of aircraft pulling banners with advertisements started in America after World War II, because thousands of pilots needed to make a living.

In the past, most commercial airline pilots got their flying experiences in the military, while today new pilots are pulling banners. Since there are fewer military pilots available to the airlines, there is a shortage of good pilots.

Hank Gillebaard

Laguna Beach