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2 Sexy 4 Sin City
The poster features Prince au naturale, save for a strategically placed guitar. Now, travelers at the nation’s seventh-busiest airport will be spared the sight of all that raw flesh – at least until they get into their first taxicab.
The offending posters are being replaced with ones bearing only the musician’s face.
Prince is slated to play a sold-out show at the Aladdin’s Theatre for the Performing Arts on December 9.
The newest Strip mega-resort was asked to remove the suggestive signage by FFE Display Services, which manages McCarran’s indoor advertising.
“We were surprised but naturally, we accommodated their wishes,” said Lynn Holt, a spokesman for the Aladdin hotel and casino.
Airport officials said they didn’t know about the removal of the Prince posters because the outside agency handles advertising issues.
So while tourists are bombarded by skin-drenched ads on cabs and billboards as they travel to and from the airport, they won’t find it in the terminal, FFE president Shauna Forsythe said.
The Aladdin did not receive the necessary approval to post Prince wearing nothing but a smile and a guitar, Forsythe said.
“Compounding it was the image that was up,” she said, adding that advertisers have guidelines that her company enforces at McCarran, which touts itself as a “family-oriented” facility.
“Had I seen it in advance, I would not have approved it,” Forsythe said.
She pointed out that neither the Aladdin nor Prince was being singled out.
The Riviera’s “Splash” advertisement has been altered so that the topless women appear to be wearing bustiers. And when the “Thunder Down Under” men perform periodically at the Stardust, they wear swim trunks in the airport ad rather than G-strings, Forsythe said.
“These aren’t public service announcement, it’s paid advertising.”
A publicist for Prince wasn’t immediately available for a response.