Columnist Jeff German: Topless ad ban bares hypocrisy

Friday, Jan. 31, 2003 | 11:13 a.m.

Memo to Las Vegas tourism industry leaders: The next time you call the National Football League a bunch of hypocrites, make sure you don't leave yourselves open to the same criticism.

Tourism officials, you will recall, blasted the NFL for refusing to allow a commercial promoting the city to air during the Super Bowl, while encouraging gambling on its own website.

But the NFL, it turns out, doesn't have a monopoly on hypocrisy.

This week the tourism industry is looking two-faced in a new advertising controversy in its own back yard.

The Crazy Horse Too is crying foul over the refusal of an advertising company owned by MGM MIRAGE to run a tasteful video promoting the topless nightclub at McCarran International Airport. The same ad has been airing on local television.

The MGM MIRAGE-owned company, VidiAd, which leases advertising time to businesses on large television screens at the airport's baggage claim terminal, is being accused of maintaining a holier-than-thou attitude toward the topless nightclub industry.

MGM MIRAGE Senior Vice President Alan Feldman confirmed that some of VidiAd's clients expressed concern about being associated on the screens with the topless joint.

"This was a business decision based on the prospect of losing revenue," Feldman said. "We had customers tell us they would pull their (advertising) schedules if we ran ads based on gentlemen's clubs in conjunction with their ads."

Feldman wouldn't name the clients, but he didn't deny that most of VidiAd's lucrative contracts are with, you guessed it, casinos, some of which offer their own form of topless entertainment.

In the eyes of those casinos, topless dancers in strip clubs apparently are more offensive than topless dancers on the Strip.

The Crazy Horse Too, meanwhile, has enlisted the help of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada in its fight to run the airport ad.

ACLU Director Gary Peck argues that Clark County Aviation Director Randy Walker, who oversees advertising at the airport, has an obligation to step in and stop VidiAd from discriminating against the Crazy Horse Too.

"The government sees itself as a shill for the casinos and the tourism industry instead of representing everyone in the community," Peck charged.

But the district attorney's office has issued an opinion allowing Walker to stay out of the fray. County Counsel Mary-Anne Miller said Walker doesn't have authority to override the business decisions of the airport's concessionaires.

And now the tourism-backed VidiAd and the Crazy Horse Too are gearing up for a donnybrook.

When the dust settles, the Crazy Horse Too probably won't have enough clout to prevail in this fight, but at least it won't look like a hypocrite.