September 14, 2025
The billboard ad depicts two Black clowns has the words ‘It’s time to get the clowns out.’
A billboard message that depicted two Black clowns along with the words “It’s time to get the clowns out” sparked concern and outrage in part because it didn’t have any context attached to it and was displayed relatively close to two runoff elections in Mobile and Pritchard, Alabama; two majority-Black cities.
According to Al.com, the owner of the billboard, Michael Lewis, a Black man, finally clarified things during a Sept. 10 interview on WBLX-FM, an urban Hip-Hop station in Mobile.
According to Lewis, who owns Bumblebee Billboards, the advertisement “doesn’t got anything to do with y’all politics.”
He continued, “It’s about bringing the clowns in. All the comedians you want in one stage. Get your tickets, tables cause it will be out of control. All the games and all the fun stuff.”
Without that clarification from Lewis, the speculation about the nature of the advertisement would have undoubtedly continued to grow as State Rep. Barbara Drummond had previously spoken out about the billboard, saying the imagery on the billboard “has long been meant to belittle Black people.”
She noted in a Facebook post, “Mobile deserves better — and as Mayor, I’ll always keep working for a city where everyone is respected.”
Lewis, meanwhile, has not responded to any requests for comment from the outlet, but noted in a post on Facebook that people are just mad that they can’t be “mad anymore.”
In an interview with NBC 15 News, Lewis said that the nature of the teaser billboard was intended to be revealed, but people had already affixed their own meanings to it before he could swap out the message.
“Well, you really don’t say much about it, you just put up,” he said. “It could be words, you know, it could just be something that make people think and be like, hey, what’s that about? And then, you know, normally you come back with it and say something else, or you leave it as it is.”
He continued, “I think people may have received information from people who didn’t know what it was about and then they put out their own views and people ran with whatever they said. And then that went crazy because controversy sells, when it was never intended to be anything negative or anything like that.”
Despite the negative perception of the billboard, because of free speech considerations, there was really nothing that could be done about it, according to Lee Rowland, the executive director of the National Coalition Against Censorship.
“The owner of the billboards generally have the right to decide what kind of content to put up,” Rowland told Al.com. “Generally, the billboard owners are looking for publicity to sell that ad space to someone who wants to reach the people’s eyes.”
Lewis, meanwhile, explained to NBC 15 that he is also a cancer survivor, but lost his mother to breast cancer, and the event is also intended to honor the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life.
“I fought and overcame thyroid cancer. A lot of people didn’t know that I was going through that. I didn’t share that with anyone,” he confessed. “I almost died. I was in the ICU for like three weeks, but amen, God’s good. And I’m appreciative of that.”
He continued, shifting into comedy show promoter mode, “Hopefully going into the future, people won’t just assume and take whatever somebody says, and they’ll investigate for themselves and trust the process. And show up! And wait for the billboard cause it’s time to get the clowns out there.”
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