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Leila Navidi / las vegas sun file
Strip visitors in November take a minute to gawk at women dancing in the strippermobile. The advertising stunt was shut down soon after.
Saturday, Dec. 19, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Stripper-Mobile in Limbo
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The stripper-mobile is off the streets for now, and the Clark County Commission has proposed to amend a law that would keep it off the streets for good. In this video, see footage of the truck in its prime and hear Deja Vu Showgirls marketing director Larry Beard defend his innovative advertising technique. Another business may have it driving down the street again within two weeks.
Sun Archives
The strippermobile is no longer trolling the Strip for customers, but in a few weeks it will be going up and down Main Street, USA.
In early January, it will become a Vegas-born — and banned — business that took its show on the road.
“We’re going to have them swinging from coast to coast,” says Larry Beard, marketing guru for Déjà Vu.
The last and only time the vehicle rolled was November in Las Vegas, when bikini-clad strippers inside the truck’s Plexiglas-enclosed cargo area swung around a brass pole affixed to the middle of the truck bed.
Strippermobile Winter Tour 2010 will be filmed, and Beard hopes to have it broadcast on cable television. It might need to be on adult on-demand channels though, because the itinerary includes Portland, Ore. Beard says the decency laws there are lax, so the dancers will be nude during that stretch of the trip.
Asked if this might cause some upset, perhaps legal problems, Beard says: “We fully expect it will. Sure, we’ll get stopped — and that’s part of the show.”
Déjà Vu’s visually arresting advertising vehicle made international news when the club hauled high-heeled strippers up and down the Strip.
Outrage ensued. Saying they had no objection to the constitutionally protected rights of the club to advertise, Clark County commissioners nonetheless vowed to fight the strippermobile on the grounds it was unsafe for both the strippers and gawking drivers.
Wanting to be “a good corporate citizen” (and not wanting to jeopardize its application to get a liquor license), Déjà Vu parked the strippermobile after less than two weeks of late-night runs.
The club did not, however, let go of the idea. How could it? Beard said that in the 10 days that the strippermobile plied the Strip, business doubled at Déjà Vu and its other club, Little Darlings. Jay Leno cracked wise about the strippermobile during a monologue. The story had gone around the world. It might just be one of the greatest marketing ploys ever hatched.
So when plans for a different strip club to rent the strippermobile did not materialize, Beard had a brainstorm.
A national tour.
According to its Web site, Déjà Vu operates roughly 60 clubs in 15 states, including those under the Hustler brand, plus adult-oriented boutiques.
Beard came up with the idea of rolling strippers through all those states and getting it all on film via a documentary crew and a Webcam in the truck enabling the curious to pay to not only watch what goes on in the vehicle, but to communicate with the women inside.
“And on our travels, of course, we’ll get pictures of the girls alongside Mount Rushmore and other famous sites,” Beard says.
With three select strippers, Beard expects the truck to roll out of Las Vegas on Jan. 10, making its first stops in Southern California. That state has almost 20 Déjà Vu-operated strip clubs. The strippermobile will then go up the coast, lingering in Portland for some extra exposure.
“You can be naked up there on the street so long as you’re not aroused and not arousing anyone,” Beard contends.
A call to Portland’s government for its take on the legality of Beard’s idea went unanswered by late Friday.
In the 1980s, Oregon’s Court of Appeals ruled that being nude in public is a protected form of speech that can be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
After Portland, the strippermobile’s combination of free expression and business promotion is to roll on to Seattle, then to the Midwest — Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan all have Déjà Vu clubs — on to New York City and Times Square, down to Maryland, over to Kentucky and Tennessee, down to Florida for spring break and over to Louisiana — for Mardi Gras, of course. Then the itinerary takes the crew to Colorado before the prodigal truck comes home to Las Vegas in the spring.
Told of Beard’s plans, County Commissioner Steve Sisolak, who last month vowed to keep the strippermobile off Las Vegas streets for safety reasons, couldn’t help but laugh.
“What can I say? Wow. I’m sure it’s going to draw a lot of attention. Amazing, just amazing.”
A UNLV sociologist who studies the sex industry doesn’t see the movement of the strippermobile outside of Las Vegas as a sign that other locales are more accepting. After all, they haven’t experienced it, yet.
Sociologist Barb Brents expects the vehicle will get the same reaction in Los Angeles or Michigan as it did here.
“There will be people who say it’s the greatest thing they’ve ever seen in their life, and I believe standards and mores are changing so some will be genuinely excited and pleasantly amused,” she says. “Then there will be the churchgoing set who don’t want to see semi-clothed women going up and down the street.”
what the hell has happened to this country...
i blame the stupid pathetic lying republicans...
hee hee hee...
This is greatest thing for Vegas, and the county commissioners just don't get it! This will bring more publicity to us than anything the drippy casino executives or tourism board could ever have dreamed up for promoting Las Vegas! Viva Strippermobile!! Go get 'em and reel 'em in!!
Incredible! This guy just might make big bucks out of this! What next?
OK in Las Vegas. Kansas isn't ready for this just yet.
See, this is why I left Vegas *for* Portland. The Strippermobile just doesn't have the same je ne sais quoi as the periodic parade of nude hipster cyclists.
In any form SEX SELLS.
Moving to Portland just got a little more appealing.
I hope it rolls through DC while Congress and Obama are in town.
Hope Ensign isn't in DC then!
This is one thing that should stay in Vegas
Get Beard and the Truck out of town...the sooner the better...maybe he will get hung up in some conservative outpost during his travels.
They definitely need to detour through Salt Lake City. The residents will be so shook up, their sacred underwear will fall off. Nerds on bikes crashing. Guys swerving to not let their 3 or 4 wives see what is happening. Yes, this is a great idea...
cignettis: You wrote, "In any form SEX SELLS." You are oh so right. Do a quick search and discover just how many times the Sun has run this article along with its slide show. This "ongoing" story is certainly good for the Sun's online viewership ratings.
I'm signing up for the driver position.
I love Strippermobiles.
Lots of judgmental stuff here - I say LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL!!
The people that take this too seriously are probably the ones with the most disturbing porn collections
lcdrman, hundreds of S&L's went under at the same time as Silverado, that billion dollars you speak of was most lilely borrowed money by developers who went bust and never repaid. Colorado real estate was in similar straits then as LV is now.
And one more thing.....What does a truck with girls in it have anything to do with Neil Bush? You seem to take every article and beat your tired old diatribe about Neil Bush into the ground. Did Neil Bush steal your wife or something?
I hope it comes up to NY,though the thing better have heat,It's COLD!!!!!! This thing was a better idea than City Center ever was!
Some people in Vegas over reacted to this entire concept and some across the country will too, but its great. As someone said, its those with the dirtiest porn collections and the most latex toys hidden away from the kids who object the most. Its that damn double standard again. Its a great idea especially in the depressed state our country is in. Wonder if they need an extra driver?
They shut them down because they were concerned about the gawkers on the strip. I guess they haven't driven on the strip in a long time. I would guess 90 percent of the ones driving on the strip are gawkers. Of course I am not counting the cabbies as they could care less. They make more money if the traffic is heavy and their fares are kept busy by the free show.
Like....seriously? This is so stupid it is not even funny. Like there aren't enough distractions on the roads with idiots on cell phones, multitasking while driving....etc. So why not add in-your-face strippers? I am embarrassed for these retards. If the city of anything goes banned it, how far do they really think they will get outside of Vegas before they are shut down? Good luck with your stripper tour, morons.
Its a great gimmick and could make some money and great for advertising...I have seen worse than this and anyways whats the big deal,, like no one seen women without clothes on,, except wilddreams... I will volunteer for the window washing position,, as long as they dance while im looking,, i mean,, cleaning the glass..
I think this is hilarious. Can't wait to see the show.
S711
Is that Tiger Woods looking out the passenger window? Easy Tiger.
Just think of all the accidents that will happen along Cajon Pass on the way to L.A. and along the Grapevine...then Grants Pass in Oregon....Gridlock I tell ya.
I can see a segment of COPS now :
Ummmm, Miss - you can provide me with a lap dance while I fasten you with my seat belt so I wont have to cite you for not being fastened.
Look at Phil Mickelson in the front seat, trying to downplay the excitement....
Thank God Tiger Woods is in the backseat and not driving the damn car, cuz we all know Tiger can actually drive the golf ball for 400 yards.
Look at Tiger, he is ready to jump out of the passenger window. " I'm a single guy now. My marriage didn't mean anything. I love strippers. Phil is married and a cheap skate, oh look a quarter."
Bandit...
How did you get Nancy Pelosi, to perform in the back of the van?