Striking image greets commuters under Duluth ore docks

Duluth’s newest striking image isn’t a condo complex or a holiday display, but a billboard on Interstate 35 - visible to northbound commuters under the Canadian National ore docks.
The billboard image first appeared last week and features a praying man, wearing a stars-and-stripes turban. It’s part of a national public service announcement campaign called “Love Has No Labels,” and is sponsored by the Ad Council.
“They randomly send us stuff as cover to run in between advertisers,” said Matt Harrold, general manager of the billboard’s owner, Lamar Advertising of Duluth-Superior. “We’ll get these images for the Wounded Warrior Project and things like that and they’re striking. They’ll make you think.”
At first blush, the current image by New York City-based photographer Mark Seliger calls to mind a Muslim man praying in a mosque.
The country’s ongoing war against what some people label “radical Islamic terrorism” and, more recently, the national debate over what the United States ought to do with refugees from Islamic countries has put Islam squarely in the national debate.
But the man praying in the image is not a Muslim and he is not praying in a mosque.
Rather, the man is Sikh and he is praying in a gurdwara, explained Ad Council spokeswoman Ellyn Fisher, in an email response to the News Tribune
Sikhism originated centuries ago in India and has more than 20 million followers. The man in the image is wearing a style of turban called a dastar. A gurdwara is open to people of all faiths and non-believers.
The Love Has No Labels campaign was developed by R/GA, an international ad agency, and launched in February 2015. It is noted for a television advertisement featuring the pro wrestler John Cena. In the commercial, Cena appears walking in a diverse neighborhood, addressing what it means to be patriotic while passing a wide variety of Americans belonging to minority groups which have faced stereotypes and discrimination.
“Remember,” Cena says in the commercial, “to love America is to love all Americans.”
“This iteration of the campaign features people from all communities who experience bias,” Fisher said. “The PSA … is one in a series, which asks us to rethink the labels we use.”
The Ad Council has a long history of producing noteworthy public service campaigns, including Smokey Bear and a long-running one for the United Negro College Fund featuring the phrase, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”
Their ads are displayed or aired in space and time that’s donated by media companies - in this case, Lamar of Duluth-Superior. Media outlets self-select which PSA they want to feature, Fisher said, but can’t predict images or control placement.
“This campaign had made great strides in celebrating diversity and promoting inclusion,” Fisher said. “We’re looking forward to continuing it.”