Request 030 — 1/30/2026

Sex (no), drugs (no), rock and roll (maybe), on a crazy train (sometimes)

n.b.: Hit a publishing snag last night. This is going out today, separate from the very first(!!) monthly roundup of foiaday, which is going out later tonight. Thanks for hanging in there with me and rolling with the punches here! xoxo Cam

It’s Friday! Happy foiaday!

Thanks to everyone who came out today for my final FOIAFriday as a guest host with MuckRock!

Local journalist, author and historian Robert Loerzel joined me for a conversation about obtaining and requesting for historical records, and it was great. A tipsheet and recording will be available to view and watch the session back; we covered some good ground, including chatting about ways to apply archival research methods toward FOIA requests and reporting. 😃

It’s late! Let’s get into today’s request: approved — and rejected — advertisements on the Chicago Transit Authority.

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In order to get a campaign out on the trains and busses of the CTA, advertisers have to meet specific parameters, then get approved by a series of committees. Lucky for us, that information is public — and already available on the internet!

Part of the ordinance and advertising policy includes specific parameters that might rule a campaign out of consideration for the CTA — things like political advertisements, potentially divisive or provocative material and gun adverts, among others. There are also specific parameters for advertising alcohol on the trains and at stations, like only allowing it within a certain geographic boundary or volume.

Things like public service announcements and government ads are all kosher. But when advertisements are on the fence, or it seems like they’re promoting materials or events or things that might violate the advertising policies set out by the CTA, they go to a committee.

So who’s trying to sell stuff on the train, and what’s getting rejected?

Let’s request for:

- Data or documents sufficient to show all advertisement applications or submissions, either through Intersection or the Chicago Transit Authority directly, between 1/1/2024 and present (1/30/2026 or whenever this request is processed). Please include the name of the company, the description of the campaign, and the cost paid by the company for the advertising application. Please release data in a .xlsx or .csv format, or a list or documents in a .pdf format.

- Data or documents sufficient to show all current advertisements in circulation on CTA trains and busses, including the locations of each advertisement, the company, and cost paid for the advertising spot, as of 1/30/2026 or whenever this request is processed. Please release data in a .xlsx or .csv format, or a list or documents in a .pdf format.

- Data or documents sufficient to show all rejected advertisements between the same time period, either by Intersection or the Chicago Transit Authority, in line with the advertising policy section III (https://www.transitchicago.com/assets/1/6/013-63_Advertising_Policy_and_Ordinance.pdf). Please include the name of the company, a description of the desired advert, the proposed placement of the advertisement in the transit system, the date of application and date of rejection, and any reasoning given for a rejection. Please release data in a .xlsx or .csv format, or a list or documents in a .pdf format.

The CTA doesn’t have a great rep for timely responses (see this suit with my former colleague Manny Ramos, for one) and because this involves potentially getting records from a third-party source (the advertising vendor, Intersection), it could take a little longer.

In truth, the biggest thing I’m fishing for here is whether DHS has tried to get an ad on the train — knowing the animosity between the current administration and the city writ large, I’m curious if the agency has tried to get similar “this runway is your future” ads around the city.

Okay. Saturday will bring a big list of every request filed, the request language and resulting documents, if I got any back. It’ll be great. I’m looking forward to having it together, because it’ll help make the archives more easy to sift through! If I’m able, I’ll try to pin the post to the top of the archives — if not, I’ll find a way to make it easy to find for searching and sifting.

Alrighty. Happy filing!

Cam

_{BTW, the preview photo used for socials is “Union Elevated Railroad, Randolph-Wells Street Station, Randolph & Wells Streets, Chicago, Cook County, IL” by the Chicagoland Survey Team/HAER, courtesy of the Library of Congress.}