[NYTr] Billboard Insult to Citgo, Chavez Also Offends Alabama Prudes

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

P via The Washington Post - Oct 19, 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/19/AR2007101902705.html


Ad Man's Take on Chavez Rhymes With Gas

By Garry Mitchell
The Associated Press

BAY MINETTE, Ala. -- The point of John McCombs' billboard is to boycott
the oil company tied to Hugo Chavez's Venezuela, but it's the rhyme he
chose that's getting more of the attention.

"Don't buy gas from this Ass!" it says over a picture of the Venezuelan
president and the logo of Citgo Petroleum Corp.

Residents in this conservative section of rural south Alabama have
varied feelings about McCombs' choice of words.

"We try our best in church and home to teach our children to use proper
language, not slang. You hear it on the radio and television, now it's
on a billboard," said the Rev. Otis Thames, whose New Life Baptist
Church is near the sign. "It's not in a real good location to make a
statement."

Ray Jones, who lives across the highway from the billboard near
Interstate 65 in north Baldwin County, said he's not offended.

"Ass. That's not a bad word," Jones said Friday, erecting a tent on his
property for a weekend flea market.

The billboard's owner said he objects to Chavez calling President Bush
"the devil" and other remarks against the U.S. government, but might
change how he expresses himself.

"I just wanted people to get the message. I am looking at maybe
changing it a little bit," said McCombs, 50, of Gulf Shores. "I hope I
haven't offended anyone too bad."

In a statement Friday, Fernando J. Garay, spokesman for Houston-based
Citgo, said the company has approximately 4,000 employees and some
8,000 independently owned retail locations in the United States.

"Citgo people reflect the values of hardworking Americans everywhere.
Boycotting their services and the products they offer hurts them," the
statement said. "We emphatically reject the use of our brand image to
insult the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo
Chavez, and by extension the Venezuelan people, the ultimate
shareholders of our parent company."