Tuesday, January 28, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

AD WARS: Club takes on airport

Crazy Horse II cries foul at being banned by MGM Mirage subsidiary

A Las Vegas adult club is crying foul after an advertising agency declined to show its television advertisement on the video screens at McCarran International Airport. Photo by John Gurzinski.

An advertising agent for an erotic dance club barred from advertising at McCarran International Airport says the club is being unfairly targeted by a powerful casino chain.

VidiAd, a subsidiary of MGM Mirage that leases video advertising time on large television screens at the airport, rejected a request from the Crazy Horse II club to run an ad that is acceptable to federal regulators and airs on network television.

The advertisement, which has been on the air since at least late last year, shows a professional actor arriving at the club with smoke billowing about. With a wide-eyed grin, the actor is then escorted to a table and waited on by accommodating young ladies as music plays.

Tom Letizia, advertising executive who represents Crazy Horse, said it's unfair that the airport allows VidiAd to prohibit ads from a company that competes for tourists with the adult-oriented entertainment at MGM Mirage's resorts, such as the La Femme stage show at MGM Grand.

Letizia said he will meet with Crazy Horse executives and lawyers Wednesday, at which time they may decided to pursue a lawsuit against the airport.

"We're preparing for battle here. It's unfortunate. All we were doing is trying to get a fair shot," Letizia said. "Is it fair that the company that controls VidiAd operates a business that competes with my client?"

McCarran Director of Aviation Randy Walker said the airport contracts out the leasing of its ad space to VidiAd, and is pleased with the company's performance. He said he has no intention of telling its executives how to run their business.

Airport officials have never seen the ad, and the controversy has not been addressed by the Clark County Commission, which serves as the airport's board of directors.

"The question here is whether a private company has to accept an advertisement from someone they don't want to do business with," Walker said. "I don't think the airport should be the one to enforce these things when we have private disputes."

The airport's indifference to VidiAd's business practices is unacceptable, said Allen Lichtenstein, general counsel for the Southern Nevada chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

As a public agency, the airport is obligated to display ads acceptable to federal regulators, and it can't simply abdicate its legal obligation by contracting out the leasing of advertisement space, he said.

"It's a clear First Amendment violation," he said. "They can't pick and choose which products and services they like and don't like."

When asked whether VidiAd has a conflict of interest in leasing ad space, Walker declined to comment. However, he pointed out that VidiAd accepts ads from major hotel chains and other companies that compete more directly with MGM Mirage than does Crazy Horse.

Also, he said MGM Mirage and Park Place Entertainment pay the airport to have a check-in station at the airport, and some limousine companies pay the airport for greater access than their competitors receive. In both situations, the airport makes money and a local company receives an edge over a competitor, Walker said.

Allen Feldman, spokesman for MGM Mirage and VidiAd, said the decision to not air Crazy Horse's ad was purely a business decision.

Other VidiAd's clients, who Feldman declined to name, expressed concern about the ad, and VidiAd made its decision based on their opposition to it.

"It's got nothing to do with politics or trying to make a statement," Feldman said. "It's a straightforward business decision."