ERADICATING EXPLOITATIVE ADVERTISING

CHANGE OUTDOOR ADVERTISING BY- LAWS

JOHANNESBURG: Fed up with the sleazy strip-club billboards in the Sandton area, the Bryanston Methodist Church (and others) have decided to clean up Johannesburg of mind-polluting billboards.

One of the key ways they will be doing this is to challenge the Outdoor Advertising By-Laws in the Johannesburg Metropol. They will be enlisting the help of Ward Counsellors in order to submit their suggestions for changes to the by-laws. Another key method will be to deliver petitions to The Gender Commission and relevant Cabinet Ministers.

If you are a Johannesburg resident and would like to support this campaign and help circulate petitions, please contact Pastor Mark Russel: markr@bmc.org.za or 011- 4632333.

CAPE TOWN: The Cape Times recently reported that a Mavericks billboard showing a scantily clad woman performing a lap dance has been ruled as offensive by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

The ASA ruling followed a complaint by a Cape Town woman, Jeanne-Marie Webb, about the billboard at the Koeberg interchange.

The directorate said it had asked for an opinion from child psychiatrist Dr Lynda Albertyn, who said there was increasing evidence that children's exposure to sexual or pornographic images turned children into sexual predators.

In it's ruling, the directorate said the Koeberg interchange was a busy public road which people of all ages used.

"While such an image might be appropriate in different media, where children are not readily exposed to it, it cannot reasonably be argued that placing a visual representation of an activity reserved for adults only in a prominent and public domain would be beneficial to children," it said.

It said adult entertainment advertising should be placed in suitable surroundings and in an appropriate medium.

“Who will rise up for Me against the wicked? Who will take a stand for Me against evil doers?” Psalm 94:16

For more information and resources contact: AFRICA CHRISTIAN ACTION PO Box 36129, Glosderry, 7702, South Africa Tel: (+27 21) 689-4481 Fax: (+27 21) 685-5884 E-mail: info@christianaction.org.za