Naked lapdancing advert only visible from the air lands marketing firm in trouble
14th June 2007
Visitors to Gatwick Airport are being greeted by a naked pole dancer - but not everyone is happy about it. The giant silhouette of a naked pole dancer painted on a field beneath the airport's flight path could land the marketing company behind it with thousands of pounds' worth of fines. The 100,000 square foot advert advertising a risque website was painted on a field in Surrey at some time last week and was designed by London-based marketing agency Sports Media Gaming (SMG).
Although nearly invisible from the ground, the advert can clearly be seen by thousands of airline passengers flying out of Gatwick each day, which Tandridge Council says is illegal. A spokeswoman for the council said it was painted on the field without proper planning permission and legal action would be taken if it is not removed. SMG is refusing to get rid of it, claiming it can be seen only from the air and so is not subject to council planning regulations. If found guilty the firm faces a fine of up to £2,500 plus an extra £250 for each day the advert remains in place.
Steven Johnson, commercial director of Flightpath Media, a subsidiary of SMG, said the advert had already generated thousands of pounds of advertising and insisted that the firm was not breaking the law. "We are operating quite within our rights. We produce adverts that are only visible by people in the air. If the council own the rights to the airspace then we would be happy to hear from them," he said.
Mr Johnson said SMG was intending to produce similar paintings over the next few days on fields beneath flight paths out of Manchester, Leeds and Stansted airports. This is not the first time that the company's ads have appeared near the airport. In 2005, an ad for Lynx deodorant featuring a man fondling two naked women was washed off a nearby field after Unilever PLC decided to pull it.
The Campaign to Protect Rural England expressed disgust with the ad. "It sets such a nasty precedent, using our landscapes just for advertisement," said Paul Miner, a planning campaigner.
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I'm sure now that the advert's got so much coverage that 2.5 grand a day is worth it!
