MONTROSE , California – Viacom might play Hustler video on its cable outlets but when it comes to Viacom Outdoor, the Hustler Casino don’t play.
After receiving complaints from employees at Montrose Christian Montessori School, the company covered up an east-facing billboard advertisement for Hustler Casino that featured a provocatively clad woman.
The billboard is on the same property as the school and has been replaced with an advertisement for art education. The previous owner of the property had entered into a contract with Viacom that the school must honor until 2008.
“I didn’t know about the contract when I purchased the property in June,” said Chris McReynolds, director of the school at 2545 Honolulu Ave.
The advertisement for the Gardena casino went up Dec. 18, and was removed Wednesday. The billboard now reads “Are your kids getting their fair share? Art. Ask for more.”
“Children were shocked by the seductiveness of the Hustler billboard,” McReynolds said.
About 200 families send their preschoolers through sixth-graders to the school.
“I was dropping my daughter off for school one day, and she looked up and said ‘Look, Daddy, that woman is wearing her underwear,'” said Nick Haddadin, whose daughter is in kindergarten. “Of all the places they could have put that billboard, they put it above a school. What a disservice.”
Though the school receives about $3,000 a month for allowing Viacom to maintain a billboard on the property, no amount of money suffices for the Hustler Casino advertisement, McReynolds said.
McReynolds called Viacom requesting it remove the advertisement after parents brought it to his attention, he said. The billboard is viewable from the preschool side of the campus, as well as when approaching the school from Honolulu.
“I didn’t know the billboard was taken down,” wrote Larry Flynt, who publishes Hustler magazine and owns Hustler Casino, in a statement. “If [Viacom] would have called me, I would have told them to leave it up there. Schools need to worry more about children smoking than scantily clad women.”
Viacom officials told McReynolds they have coded the billboard for family-oriented signs only, he said.
It’s an idea so b going to be topless?