Lapdancing to Prosperity: Strip Clubs Fuel Ad Revenue Increase

(MoneyWatch)  Billboard provider Lamar Advertising (LAMR) posted a sales increase for the first time in two years, boosted in part by revenue from strip clubs. I'm not saying that Lamar's entire net revenue increase of 4.2 percent to $286.4 million for Q2 2010 came entirely from gentlemen's clubs, of course. But you don't have to drive very far in America to realize that one of the non-seasonal small-business sectors that most consistently utilizes outdoor billboards of the type that Lamar provides is lap-dancing bars.

The fact that Lamar is showing a sales increase speaks to a broad recovery across a wide range of business sectors: Clients that need billboard services run the gamut. And speaking of broads ...

Lamar frequently shows up in the local news for its gloriously contradictory policies on whose ads it will take and whose it won't, thanks to its structure of regional managers who make their own judgments about whose business they'll take. The company recently annoyed a church in Birmingham, Ala., when it put up three ads for The Palace and Club Volcano. The ads will be moved:

"That's not our policy of putting that in front of churches and schools," said Jeff Handley, Lamar's sales manager. "We're in the process of moving it now."

Lamar also supplies advertising for Fully Xposed, "the busiest bar in L.A.!" in California, among others.

Here's a rough running summary of the controversial clients Lamar will and won't take:

• Yes to strip clubs
• Yes to marijuana sellers
• Yes to hookers
• No to puppet cleavage
• No to gays
  
• No to atheists
• No to healthcare reform advocates
• No to Obama "birthers"
• No to critics of Israel

Related:

• Inside the Billboard Biz: Puppet Cleavage is a No-No, But Hookers and Pot Dealers Are Just Fine
• How Not to Advertise Medical Marijuana
• Lamar Refuses, Then Accepts, Pro-Healthcare Reform Ad That Blasts GOP Congressman
• Lamar Sells Billboards to Hookers But Not to Atheists

Image by Flickr user mockstar, CC.