HUNTINGTON BEACH : Council May Outlaw Booze, Cigarette Ads

Some advertisements enticing young people to pop open a beer or light a cigarette would be outlawed in this city under a proposed ordinance.

City Councilwoman Grace Winchell, who proposed the idea, said liquor and tobacco ads on public property suggest to young people that the city endorses those products.

Adopting a law against such advertisements on city property would be largely symbolic. As a policy, the city already does prohibit them, officials said.

“The policy has been there, it’s just not actually printed in the ordinance,” Winchell said. “That is my intent, to have it right there.” The council Monday asked the staff to look into the feasibility of the ordinance.

Winchell said she got the idea from serving on the advisory committee to the Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley and Westminster chapter of the No to Drugs in Schools group.

Huntington Beach has prohibited those advertisements on bus shelters and telephone booths since April, 1988, said Mike Strange, a senior planner with the city. And those ads have been banned from beaches and parks for about 30 years, said Max Bowman, the community services director.

“It’s a philosophy of the director of community services, which is me,” Bowman said.

Alcoholic-beverage companies would like to advertise on the beach by sponsoring sporting events such as surfing and volleyball tournaments, Bowman said.

When an organization applies to Huntington Beach for a permit to hold an event at the beach or a park, it is told of the city policy, Bowman said.