The American Trucking Associations on June 6 thanked the hundreds of ATA members and industry partners and thousands of truck drivers for taking swift action that resulted in Maxim Magazine correcting and replacing a defamatory advertisement by a Texas law firm.
“We want to thank all the ATA members, state trucking associations, truck drivers, technicians, and all our industry partners for coming together and calling on Maxim to distance themselves and renounce this deplorable advertisement that portrays truck drivers as serial killers,” said ATA President and CEO Bill Graves. “It was through their hard work that Maxim reached out to us yesterday and offered to replace the ad in their digital editions with a positive, pro-trucking industry ad, and offering to place a similar ad in the print edition of next month’s magazine.”
In a statement, Maxim said the ad “does not reflect the beliefs or opinions of the people at this magazine” and committed to “taking aggressive action to remove the aforesaid advertisement. To illustrate, the ad has been removed from its digital copy and is being replaced with facts about truckers and the trucking industry. Maxim will find many avenues to continue supporting the industry.”
“The swift response of the industry, and Maxim’s equally swift response demonstrate clearly how formidable the industry can be when telling its very positive, very compelling story,” Graves said. “If this is an indication of how powerful the new industry-wide image movement, Trucking Moves America Forward, will be, the industry’s voice will be loud and clear.”
Click on the URL to see the ad Maxim is now placing in its digital editions: http://www.trucking.org/ATA%20Docs/What%20We%20Do/Image%20and%20Outreach%20Programs/Misc%20Documents/TMAF_Maxim_DigitalAd_8x10_060614-Final.pdf