A campaign to get advertisements for gay hookup site Squirt.org removed from Washington, D.C. metro stations by conservatives and concerned parents is so far coming up empty.
An online petition calling for their removal has garnered over 1,500 signatures at time of writing.
Related: Antigay Senator Would Like People To Stop Asking About His Homemade Sex Tape
Conservative news site CNSNews.com reports a Metro representative told them the ads could not be removed because regulating content would violate the advertiser’s First Amendment rights.
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They point out that the Metro bans religious, political and advocacy advertising, which is true.
That decision was made last year after a group tried to buy space to place a cartoon of Muhammad as an advertisement, which many Muslims find offensive. The same group trying to place the ad was responsible for the “Draw Muhammad” contest that led to a shooting in Texas.
The Metro then closed what they labeled as “issue-oriented” advertising for the rest of the year, which they then decided to continue indefinitely.
“The advertiser purchased a total of five ads in three stations through August 7. Metro has not received any customer complaints to date,” Metro spokesperson Morgan Dye told CNSNews.com.
The petition reads as follows:
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
This is not the first time Squirt ads have made a stir.
They have previously caused concern in Dallas, were censored in Miami and were pulled in Toronto and Cardiff.
A video of an ex-marine smashing the glass protecting one of the ads and throwing it into the street once accessible went viral last year.
Kangol
Hey, it’s only Squirt. It could be CruisingforSex, ThugsforSex or Bareback.com!
Stache
Wow. The guy with the Daffy duck voice has got allot bigger problems like mental health to worry about.
Alistair Wiseman
At least the imagery is not as overt as Queerty’s original post regarding this issue.
However, I don’t want to see an equivalent ad for a heterosexual “hook-up site” called Ejaculation.org either.
Example #12,942 of the left-wing, progressive coarsening of America.
Captain Obvious
Kind of a weird thing to get defensive about unless you have no idea what the metro is. The ads do look inappropriate for kids and rather sexual to be out in public. The metro is the main source of public transportation in the DC area. I personally wouldn’t even notice the ads(I find underwear ads to be a safety hazard while driving) but I could see why a parent or someone who just doesn’t want to be bombarded by sexual advertising would get upset. It looks just as tacky as the crap you see online.
lcandela123
@Captain Obvious: You are certainly free not to like the ad, but you are not free to deny this totally legal advertisement from appearing.
The petition was amusing. Quite a frail reed to connect a hook-up site with possible illegal activity.
Ari Gold
I live in DC and used to walk past a Squirt billboard everyday and everyday it bothered me! I’m not conservative in the least and I love a good hookup as much as the next person, but seeing “Squirt” plastered on a billboard before I go to work is not how I want to start my morning. I kept wondering why this tacky billboard just up and disappeared on Monday, but I’m honestly not surprised.
1898
I’m all for freedom of speech; however, I’m finding it difficult to be sympathetic to a company whose logo actually has semen in it…