Brothel billboard cruises Paradise Road

In a city with an anything-goes reputation, a mobile billboard advertising a legal brothel raised few eyebrows Friday as it cruised up and down Paradise Road.

But that didn't stop industry representatives from worrying about the heightened visibility.

"I think this really is pushing the envelope a little hard, because I think it maybe could stir up a little negativism toward the industry that isn't there now," lobbyist George Flint said.

Flint, who owns a Reno wedding chapel and serves as executive director for the Nevada Brothel Owners Association, has urged his clients to maintain their low profile since a July court ruling paved the way for such advertisements.

U.S. District Judge James Mahan struck down two state laws that prohibited legal bordellos from advertising in counties, such as Clark and Washoe, where prostitution is illegal. The Nevada Legislature enacted the laws banning such ads in 1979.

In response to Mahan's ruling, Pahrump's Chicken Ranch brothel launched its first advertising campaign Friday morning in Las Vegas with the mobile billboard. A public relations firm representing the business invited members of the news media to view the billboard in a parking lot on Sunset Road before the advertisement began traveling on Paradise.

"You can lead your client to water, but you can't necessarily make him drink or understand," Flint said.

Late Friday, the Nevada attorney general's office announced that it had filed an appeal of Mahan's ruling with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

"To protect the will of Nevadans to place reasonable restrictions on brothel advertising, my office will appeal this decision," Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto said in a written statement. "This will allow our state to clarify the standard for reviewing our existing law and could help the Legislature should a new law need to be crafted."

Nicole Moon, spokeswoman for the attorney general's office, said the decision to appeal the ruling had nothing to do with the Chicken Ranch billboard or recent newspaper ads featuring other brothels.

"It was mostly based on the fact that we don't think that the judge used the right standard in his decision," she said.

Bob Fisher, who heads the Fisher & Associates public relations firm in Los Angeles, said his business has represented the owners of the Chicken Ranch since they bought the brothel in 1982. He said the owners decided to test the advertising waters with the mobile billboard.

"We figured: If it could be done tastefully, why not?" Fisher said.

Both sides of the billboard advertise "The World Famous Historic Chicken Ranch" with its phone number and the slogan "Where Gentlemen Come to Relax and Enjoy." It also tells prospective customers that the business offers "Free Transportation 24/7" and is "Closest To Las Vegas."

The word "brothel" appears only in the Web site address.

"I was told it wouldn't say 'brothel' on it, but it does say 'brothel,'" Flint said.

The billboard also features the bordello's logo, a pair of legs emerging from an eggshell. In the background is a photo of the brothel's facade.

"Nice-looking ad," remarked Las Vegas resident William Boyer as the billboard passed Friday morning on Paradise near Flamingo Road. "It doesn't say anything improper."

Boyer, a 69-year-old great grandfather, then added, "I could give the people who are running the ad a clue: It doesn't stick out."

He said he sees nothing wrong with houses of prostitution advertising in Las Vegas.

"It's a business in Nevada that is legal in Nevada in some places," he said.

Several men meeting at a nearby Starbucks saw the billboard Friday after a reporter pointed it out to them.

"I saw a pair of legs and an eggshell," said Jose Jiminez, a commercial real estate investor. "There was nothing offensive by what I saw, and it went by so fast, I couldn't read it."

Jiminez, a 59-year-old grandfather, lives in California but has a condo in Las Vegas.

"I'm here a lot, and I see a whole lot of other things that bother me more," he said.

When the billboard passed by a second time, he got a better look and confirmed that it contained nothing that offended him.

One man in the group, who would not give his name, said "from a moral standpoint" that he wouldn't want his stepchildren to see brothel advertisements on the street.

The Chicken Ranch billboard was to travel on Paradise from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday between Sahara and Tropicana avenues.

When asked why Paradise was chosen over the nearby Strip, Fisher replied with a question: "Why do people open off-Broadway before they go on Broadway?"

He said the business owners wanted to gauge the public's reaction to the billboard before deciding whether to place it on other streets in Las Vegas, including the Strip. Ads also are planned for the Yellow Pages in Pahrump and Las Vegas, the spokesman said.

Flint said he received six calls about the Chicken Ranch billboard by mid-afternoon Friday -- two from brothel owners, two from politicians and two from friends.

"Everybody's kind of nervous about it," he said.

Flint wondered aloud about the effect of having multiple brothels parading advertisements on the Strip, should that occur. He also questioned the viability of the mobile billboard as an advertising tool.

"Who's going to see it and suddenly say, 'Let's drive out to the Chicken Ranch.'" he said.

Tim Clemmons, 31, and his 2-year-old daughter, Teagan, were watching airplanes take off and land Friday morning at McCarran International Airport as the Chicken Ranch billboard sat on display nearby in the same Sunset Road parking lot.

Clemmons, who was born and raised in Las Vegas, said he doesn't want brothels in the city but doesn't mind their advertisements, even though he knows he someday will have to answer his two daughters' questions about them.

"I have no problem explaining it to my kids, just like my parents explained it to me back in the '80s," he said.'