Crazy Horse may sue over rejected ad at airport

Jace Radke

Thursday, Jan. 30, 2003 | 11:03 a.m.

The owners of the Crazy Horse Too strip club are considering filing a federal civil rights lawsuit over an advertising company's refusal to show the club's commercial on video screens at McCarran International Airport.

Attorneys for the club met Wednesday with representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada to discuss the situation.

VidiAd, the company that refused to run the commercial, is a subsidiary of MGM MIRAGE that leases four large video screens in the baggage claim areas at McCarran.

"We're going to try everything we can to avoid a lawsuit, because that's not beneficial to anyone, but a lawsuit remains an option," said Tom Letizia, an advertising executive who represents the Crazy Horse.

Gary Peck, ACLU of Nevada executive director, said that not running the ad is a clear violation of McCarran's advertising policy.

The airport advertising policy, written in 1999, notes that only commercial ads can be accepted by the airport, and they must relate to a legal activity. The ads cannot contain explicit sexual or obscene material as defined in the Clark County Code and the Nevada Revised Statutes, and they must meet industry standards.

"That policy was designed by the ACLU and the airport to prevent content-based, discretionary decision-making on the part of airport authorities," Peck said.

"The root problem is that the government views itself as a shill for the gaming and tourism industry when it should be representing all the people in the community," Peck alleged.

Airport officials and Alan Feldman, spokesman for MGM MIRAGE and VidiAd, said content was not the reason why the ad was refused.

"The simple fact is that some of our clients said they would cease to be our clients if we ran the Crazy Horse ads," Feldman said. He called the refusal a business decision.

Airport spokeswoman Hilarie Grey said that VidiAd is like other concessions in the airport in that they lease space and make their own business decisions.

"We haven't even seen (the ad)," Grey said. "We lease space the space to VidiAd, but they are a private business and decided not to accept it based on business decisions."

ACLU attorney Allen Lichtenstein said that the argument that VidiAd is similar to a hot dog stand or other vendors at the airport is a nonsensical argument.

"VidiAd is acting on behalf of the airport to sell airport advertising space, and must abide by the advertising policy," Lichtenstein said. "If the county hired a private security force to replace Metro, and that security force beat people, could the county then pretend that they have no responsibility for that?

"No, and the airport has responsibility in this case."

The ad in question features Joe Viterelli, an actor who often plays a mobster in his films. Among his characters are Vinnie the Shrimp in "Mickey Blue Eyes" and Jelly in "Analyze This" and "Analyze That," which starred Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal.

In the commercial, Viterelli's character arrives in Las Vegas and is whisked away in a limo to the Crazy Horse Too, where he is waited on by scantily clad women.

Advertisements for hotels and shows are run on the VidiAd screens at McCarran, including ads for La Femme, a stage show at the MGM that includes nudity.

Grey said that advertisements displayed by VidiAd are brought to airport officials to ensure that they meet standards set forth in the airport's advertising policy. Grey said the Crazy Horse Too ad didn't make it to that point because VidiAd decided against doing business with the strip club.

The airport averages about $15 million a year in revenue from advertising inside and outside of the airport.

McCarran is one of the only airports in the nation that makes the majority of its profit from non-aviation revenue such as advertising, gambling and concessions, airport officials said.

"About 60 percent of our revenue is non-aviation," airport spokeswoman Debbie Millet said. "That means we don't have to raise fees on the airlines, and ticket prices to Las Vegas stay affordable."