West Hills Mom Leads Fight Against Strip Club Billboards

CANOGA PARK (CBSLA.com) — A San Fernando Valley woman is the driving force behind a campaign to prohibit strip clubs from advertising on billboards.

KNX 1070's John Brooks reports the effort was fueled by what critics are calling a onslaught of dozens of racy advertisements for the "Xposed" strip club.

Ursula Pyland, a mother from West Hills, has started an online petition to ban the billboards for the Canoga Park gentleman's club, which she claims feature the faces of woman who stare alluringly at passersby — including her own children.

An estimated 50 billboards for Xposed are located throughout the Valley, but while complaints in other neighborhoods have led the company to take them down or relocate them, club owner Brad Barnes denies the ads contain offensive or inappropriate content.

And while the billboard company that hosts the ads signaled its intention to protect its constitutional right of free speech, critics say the ads go too far.

"It's one thing to use a beautiful girl to sell a Chevrolet if you think people won't buy it without her," said one man. "It's another thing to put up 50 club signs like that."

The proposed ban would be modeled after one currently in place that prohibits cigarettes to be featured on billboards.

Lamar Advertising, the company that services the billboards, has also been targeted by community members in Birmingham, Ala., for locating three large billboards with images of scantily-clad women across the street from a Baptist church.

The online petition comes after a Van Nuys mom in April successfully persuaded billboard giant Van Wagner to move an ad featuring a giant inflated condom that was located near her home.