from www.clarionledger.com – Three months after Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. wrote the ownership of a Jackson strip club about advertising he considered too racy, one billboard remains in place while another is in tatters after an attack by vandals.
On I-220, the billboard advertising Danny’s Cabaret, 995 S. West St., still features the material that first offended some citizens and the mayor: a bikini-clad blonde with the slogan, “Strippers love to climb our pole.”
Blake Owens of Memphis who shares club ownership with his brother Dax Owens, said Monday the vandalized billboard on I-55 South at Savannah Street will be replaced.
He said the message might be toned down, as per the mayor’s wishes, but the advertisement of the club will remain.
Dax Owens, who manages Danny’s, could not be reached for comment.
Blake Owens said he owns the billboard and will have final approval over its content.
Jackson lawyer Chris Ganner represents Danny’s, but he was in trial out of state and did not return requests for comment made through his secretary Monday.
City spokesman Chris Mims said Ganner had called him late in December, and Mims reiterated the city’s “desire to have that billboard removed.”
“They had contact with me and asked if there was an alternative,” Mims said.
Lila Davis of Memphis, listed as a vice president of the ownership group, said the sign “never would have been up if I’d had anything to do with it.”
Some motorists seeing the interstate signs have complained the signs are vulgar, while others have said they saw nothing wrong with them.