City Council Bans Most Tobacco Ad Billboards
Advertisements for tobacco products will soon disappear from most billboards in the city after a decision by the City Council to ban the ads.
The council unanimously passed an ordinance last week banning tobacco-ad billboards, except on the Sunset Strip, said City Councilman Paul Koretz, who wrote the legislation.
He said the ban is designed to protect children and teenagers from images that glorify smoking.
Billboard companies have six months to remove their advertisements.
Exempting the Sunset Strip from the ban protects the city from potential legal action by billboard or tobacco companies on 1st Amendment grounds, Koretz said, because the ads are not banned from the entire city.
Koretz is now trying to persuade billboard owners to participate in a voluntary tobacco-ad ban on the Sunset Strip.
City officials hope owners of the Strip’s most famous icon--the towering Marlboro Man--will voluntarily remove the sign.
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