Editorial: Sex ads are subject to regulation

Monday, March 22, 2004 | 8:33 a.m.

Is it really all that surprising that a growing number of people are complaining about the overtly sexual advertising glaring from gigantic billboards that are visible from our main streets and highways? The American Civil Liberties Union and certain casinos, strip clubs and billboard companies apparently think parents with their children in the back seat should drive by them without a second thought.

We, however, think it's commendable for people to insist that their community leaders take action against unacceptable images thrust so publicly upon them. And we know unacceptable when we see it, to wit: A billboard showing a pair of lacy panties dropped to a woman's ankles, and trumpeting the words, "Get ready to buck all night." Another billboard showing a nude woman covering her nipples with a pair of dice, with the message, "We sell used dice." These billboards, one at Koval Lane and Harmon Avenue, the other at Interstate 15 and Flamingo Road, were put up by the Hard Rock Hotel. They were not located discreetly in our resort corridors, but were placed in full view of tens of thousands of passing motorists and pedestrians.

At Thursday's meeting of the Nevada Gaming Commission, 200 or more residents showed up to demand regulations against casinos displaying such blatantly sexual billboards. We found the protest to be perfectly understandable, as such billboards are beginning to proliferate. And if these are allowed, what will be next? The vast majority of people do not want graphic sex ads assaulting their senses and the eyes of their children as they go about their daily errands. They have a right to expect their community to have standards. Commercial speech can be regulated by the government, and it should be when businesses refuse to regulate themselves.

There was a time when businesses took pride in supporting their communities. If even a tiny bit of this Americana still exists within our local strip clubs and casinos, they will remove these reprehensible images on their own. If they don't, the appropriate government regulatory authority -- city, county or Gaming Commission -- should act for them.