Strip Club Ad On Westwood Village Billboard Stirs Complaints
Billboard at Weyburn & Gayley Aves. in Westwood Village
Some Westwood residents don’t think a billboard advertising a San Fernando Valley strip club belongs on a Westwood Village street two blocks from the UCLA campus.
One of those residents, Barbara Broide, sent an e-mail to the sign owner, Lamar Advertising, complaining that “It is an offensive ad that degrades the community character. Its placement in such close proximity to UCLA is in particularly poor taste.”
Lamar Advertising billboard adjacent to Venice residence
The Baton Rouge, Louisiana company is no stranger to such controversies. Late last year in Venice, some residents complained after an ad for the same strip club appeared on a billboard less than 50 ft. from the nearest house on a residential street. And another was put up several months ago on a billboard attached to a liquor store in an upscale area of West L.A.
Further afield, the company became the target of complaints last month in Birmingham, Alabama, when it put strip club ads on billboards across the street from a Baptist church. See news article. However, the company earlier had refused to run billboard ads in Birmingham for an “Imagine No Religion” campaign by an atheist organization.
A controversy also arose recently when the company rejected an ad for a billboard in Colorado Springs that featured a furry, muppet-like creature displaying cleavage. In news reports, a Lamar account executive was quoted as saying that he has a simple test for what’s appropriate for billboards. “If I have to explain it to my 4-year-old or my grandmother, we don’t put it up.” See news article.
Another Westwood resident offended by the strip club ad said in an e-mail to Lamar, “For those of us who value a clean and decent cityscape in which to raise our
families, it seems a herculean task against the greed and degradation promoted
by the likes of your company.”
