Conservative group Citizens for Community Values is seeking the removal of a billboard next to I-71 that it says is obscene.
The billboard, which advertises adult store Jimmy Flynt Sexy Gifts, reads “end boring sex.”
The billboard does not contain any images. It stands near the Red Bank Road exit of the highway, just a few miles from the Sharonville store, which opened last year.
The store is owned by Dustin Flynt, the son of Jimmy Flynt, who co-founded famous adult entertainment company Hustler in Cincinnati with his brother Larry Flynt.
The two have since split over legal battles. Larry runs three stores in the area, while Dustin, who sided with his father, runs two, including the one in Sharonville not far from CCV’s headquarters.
“I’m attracted to conservative areas,” the younger Flynt told The Cincinnati Enquirer recently, explaining his choice of location for the new shop. “There is money in ’burbs and I’m central to our Cincinnati market.”
CCV says children could see the billboard as their parents are driving down I-71. CCV President Phil Burress has encouraged the group’s members, which number in the thousands across the country, to email and call Flynt and the billboard’s owner to encourage them to take the advertisement down.
Billboard owner Todd Helton has said he will not take down the advertisement.
It’s not the first time the Flynt family name has appeared in a tussle with CCV. The group has long sought to shut down the Flynts’ stores in the Greater Cincinnati area. That’s led to some high-profile first amendment legal battles over the years.
Burress says Ohio’s anti-obscenity laws could apply to the billboard, but those laws are very rarely enforced.
Larry Flynt was charged with and convicted of obscenity charges in 1976 by the Hamilton County prosecutor’s office. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison, but the conviction was overturned on appeal.
