Smoking Motorcyclist on Billboards Bites the Dust
The ride is over for the Virginia Slims model on her motorcycle.
On Sunday, dozens of billboards that feature a long-haired, helmet-less woman on a Harley Davidson motorcycle will be removed statewide.
Critics of the billboard--a combination of anti-smoking advocates and driving safety buffs--say the cigarette-smoking woman is clearly riding the motorcycle without a helmet, in flagrant violation of a year-old state law. They complain that the billboard is another example of marketing trickery frequently used by cigarette makers in their advertising.
“All the tobacco companies have to sell is glamour and sex,” said Ahron Leichtman, executive director of Citizens for a Tobacco-Free Society. “It would, of course, defeat their purpose to cover up the head of a beautiful woman with a helmet.”
Executives at Philip Morris, which makes the Virginia Slims brand, say the billboards are not being removed because of any controversy, but were routinely scheduled to be changed.
What’s more, they say the controversy is actually because of a misperception by critics. “The model is not riding the motorcycle,” said Sheila Banks-McKenzie, director of media affairs at Philip Morris. “She’s simply posing in the ad with the motorcycle as a prop.”
An executive at Gannett’s Los Angeles office said the billboard firm received several complaints from consumers about the boards.
And shortly after the billboard material arrived at the firm’s Los Angeles office, it immediately contacted Philip Morris and informed them that there might be some controversy, said Robbynn Lystrup, vice president at Gannett.
One motorcycle expert said that close inspection reveals that the model couldn’t possibly be riding the motorcycle--although, he believes, the cigarette maker intended to give the public the impression that she was riding it.
“If you look closely at the picture, you can see it’s a prop and there’s not even a whole motorcycle there,” said Art Friedman, editor of the Los Angeles-based magazine Motorcyclist.
