SPRING HILL, Tennessee – Is “sexy” a dirty word?

It is if it’s offending residents by being displayed on an electronic sign in Campbell Station, Spring Hill city officials say. Cindy Landis, owner of the Studio 4 Hair & More salon in The Shoppes of Campbell Station, said she was told by city officials that two residents complained about “Sexy Hair Concepts” being scrolled across the sign at the shopping center.

Landis has stopped displaying the product name for now and is contacting the manufacturer’s legal team to see whether it is interested in her case.

“I cannot advertise one of my products,” she said. “It’s discrimination.”

Not so, Building Official Ferrell White said.

“The city’s sign ordinance says you can’t have any lewd language,” he said. “I know it’s the name of a product, but people objected to the word ‘sexy’ on the sign.”

White said a woman called him and said she had her child in the car with her when she saw the sign.

“She said she didn’t want to have to explain to her 6-year-old what ‘sexy’ was,” White said.

Landis said she is furious that two people’s complaints can cost her advertising.

“The sign was scrolling product names,” she said. “There was Wella and Matrix, then Sexy Hair Concepts.

“To think that two people out of 20,000 can do this is ridiculous,” she said.

Her husband, Michael, agreed.

“It’s the silliest thing,” he said. “It’s our biggest-selling product line. And just because of the word ‘sexy,’ it’s gone.”

White said he understands Landis’ point but he must enforce the city’s regulations.

“I think the ordinance is very strict on that point,” he said.

Earlier this year, the city shut down the sign, saying its pulsing neon messages were disturbing nearby residents.

A judge ruled that the sign was legal, based on the city’s sign ordinance.

Immediately thereafter, aldermen amended the ordinance to ban “animatronic” signs with flashing, pulsing words and characters, but the Shoppe’s sign was grandfathered in. •