NewsWest 9
ODESSA- A van parked near a busy Odessa intersection has some residents upset. It's advertising Jaguars Gold Club, a local strip joint. Plastered all over the vehicle are pictures of attractive women wearing very little clothing.
Taryn Stinson doesn't believe her three year-old boy is ready to see images like the ones on the van.
"I don't want him to be exposed to things that he's not ready to understand. I really am disgusted by it. A lot of people see the van as a small problem and it might be a small problem but it really represents something that's much, much bigger," Stinson said.
That bigger problem, she says, is how it objectifies women.
Her main concern though is its location. Stinson claims its been parked for days in a parking lot of a closed-down Golden Corral restaurant, just off the heavily trafficked intersection of East 42nd Street and Tanglewood Lane.
"I don't even have a problem with the fact that they're promoting their business. I just feel like it can be done in a more discreet way. It's just the fact that it's on a busy street where everybody can see it," she adds.
Stinson's critics say she's far too overprotective, claiming there are more scantily clad women all over television, Internet, movies and even at community swimming pools.
The city says the van's advertisement is protected by a First Amendment right.
City of Odessa Spokesperson, Andrea Goodson, says, "What it's advertising and how it's doing it is not illegal. It's not lude. It's not obscene. Therefore, it is perfectly legal as long as that private property owner has given permission for that vehicle to be there."
