Two bus lines - one here, one in Madison, Wisconsin - have dropped a Web site's advertising from their vehicles over concerns that a link on the site is a softcore porn link.
Capital Metro Bus service here refused to renew a $36,000 contract for advertising spaces on the sides of its buses with Razorfish Subnetwork, operator of rsub.com, saying it was concerned over the softcore link, according to the Associated Press. Madison Metro has likewise dropped the advertising.
Executived with Razorfish Subnetwork, part of a New York-based company called Razorfish, Inc., tell the AP they were stunned by the decisions. Rsub.com is a gathering of content from various artists, musicians, and writers, and regularly features a nude photograph and links users to a site (www.nerve.com) showing self-proclaimed "literate smut," the AP says. That site, at this writing, features a "photo of the day" and a link to a recent interview with AVN Adult Video Award winner Tristan Tarmino, who won Best Anal-Themed Tape for Tristan Taormino's Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women.
"It totally surprised us, " Razorfish vice president of marketing Ryan Dolan tells the AP about the contract situation. " Can museums not advertise Renaissance art exhibits because the paintings contain nude people?"
But Capital Metro and Obie Media, an advertising contractor, called it porn which violated its contracts banning tobacco, alcohol, porn, or "anything potentially defamatory," the AP says.
Madison Metro's Julie Maryott-Walsh tells the AP transit officials received e-mail complaining about the Web site and looked the site up before complaining to Obie. "The sign itself on the side of the bus is innocuous, " she says. " It certainly wouldn't make one believe that' s the material you would find."
Capital Metro also says it got numerous calls complaining about the site, the AP says. " We are a public entity with a responsibility to the community to make sure we don' t have ads up that are clearly ...pornographic, " says spokesman Sam Archer to the Austin American-Statesman.
