Debate over lewd ads continues in Legislature

Jennifer Coleman

Monday, May 3, 1999 | 11:39 a.m.

CARSON CITY - Lawmakers saw samples of lewd ads, which often litter the Las Vegas Strip, during a committee hearing Monday on a bill that seeks to protect children from seeing photos of nude women.

AB282, by Assemblyman John Lee, D-Las Vegas, would amend Nevada laws to require an "opaque covering" over womens' breasts depicted in the ads.

Though the bill doesn't name them, Lee says it is in response to the dozens of different pamphlets and handbills advertising escort services in Las Vegas. The bills are handed out by people hired by the companies or are simply left in open newsracks to be picked up by passersby.

Lee said the flyers are often blown around the sidewalk outside his business.

"I have to go out and clean up this crap so my children don't see it," Lee said. "There's a place for everything and the corner of Rancho and Vegas Drive is not the place."

Lee added pornography is "a dark, dark thing that takes over a lot of people's minds."

The marketers who produce the pamphlets have pushed the limits on what they can show in photographs, Lee added. "Before long, I don't know if we'll have couples or what."

A lobbyist representing Hillsboro Enterprises, an escort service company in Las Vegas, said he had convinced his client to support the watered-down bill.

But John Cummings of Paladin Advertising retracted that support when he thought Lee was trying to target Hillsboro Enterprises and destroy the business.

"I have never seen anything as dishonest as Mr. Lee today," Cummings said. "This is an attempt to destroy this business."

Cummings said his clients can't advertise on television, in newspapers or in the telephone directory, so their ability to hand out flyers or pamphlets shouldn't be limited. He said the escort services are often targeted by "vindictive agencies and unenlightened judges."

But Lee defended his bill, saying it would "put the heat on the city to clean up" if illegal flyers are being circulated to minors. It wouldn't allow them to target specific businesses, he added.