A council has apologised over claims it undermined the BLM movement – with an advert about “Dog Fouling Matters”.
North Devon Council has been running the campaign aimed at getting owners to clean up after their pets.
But the posters are now being removed after concerns were raised that it was ‘piggy-backing’ on the message from BLM.
The council claims the similarity of wording was just a coincidence and claimed the slogan was thought up 18 months go.
In a complaint to the council, local resident Yasmin Beck urged them to reconsider the choice of words.
Undermines
She wrote: “Unfortunately your slogan ‘Dog fouling matters’ uses a satirical play on words which undermines the Black Lives Matter movement. This poster gives a feel of pointing a laughing finger at the many people driving forwards for positive change.
“Take them down and loudly show your support. Let’s get North Devon Council behind this movement, rather than looking as though they’re snickering at it.”
In response, a spokesperson for North Devon Council said: “We are sorry for any offence which may have been caused by the wording on some of our dog fouling stickers.
“This poster was developed a while ago when the prominence of the Black Lives Matter campaign was not as large as it has been recently and the posters have been up around the district for approximately 18 months.
“The posters were certainly not intended to piggyback off the Black Lives Matter movement and any similarity in the wording is coincidence.
“North Devon Council recognises the importance of the Black Lives Matter campaign and fully supports the movement.
“We hope that the complainant will understand that there was never any intention to cause offence, and we are happy to take feedback from the public on board, so will remove these posters and raise this with the relevant team to consider for any future campaigns.”
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