Leesburg Performing Arts Commission pauses paid ad plan, asks town to post survey graphic and orders brochures and cards

The Leesburg Performing Arts Commission voted June 15 to pause a paid digital advertising campaign tied to a town demographic survey, ask the town to post an unpaid social-media graphic linking to the survey, add the survey to the Performing Arts Commission web page, and approve printed outreach materials including a brochure and 2,000 premium business cards.

The commission’s chair, Malika Kanur, opened discussion by noting the fiscal-year deadline: FY25 advertising funds could not be used for ads running in July because the budget closes on June 30. Town staff explained that paid advertisements must be routed through the town manager and the public information office and that payments to platforms (for example, Facebook) occur when an ad runs. The timing, staff said, made it unlikely a paid ad could be created, approved and run before the fiscal-year cutoff.

Commissioners moved instead to create a…