MONROE — Interstate 75 billboards advertising the adult Hustler Hollywood store may disappear, due to a local anti-pornography group's efforts to persuade an outdoor sign company to stop such advertising.

        Kevin Reilly, chief executive officer of Baton Rouge, La.-based Lamar Outdoor Advertising, said Monday he was recently swayed by Citizens for Community Values officials to not renew Hustler's leasing contracts on the store's two I-75 billboards when they expire. It's a rare setback for Hustler's Flynt family, who opened the store in this small city 14 months ago despite opposition that included the CCV and Monroe officials.

        Mr. Reilly said officials from the Sharonville-based CCV helped him decide that the text-only billboards along the highway in Butler and Warren counties “offended community standards.”

        Mr. Reilly said his company, which owns 160,000 billboard faces nationwide, does allow Hustler outdoor signs in other parts of the country but that Lamar “felt it was very important for our company to comply with community standards” in northern Greater Cincinnati. The contract for one billboard expires later this month and the other in September.

        Jimmy Flynt, brother of Hustler founder Larry Flynt and business partner in the company's international adult-entertainment and publishing empire, criticized the company's decision and the CCV's efforts as “censorship.”

        “Lamar is trying to appease a little segment of the population. This is another battle we have to fight against censorship,” said Mr. Flynt, who oversees the Monroe Hustler store, just off the I-75 and Ohio 63 interchange on the Butler and Warren County border.

        CCV President Phil Burress calls it “a huge victory.”

        “Lamar agreed with us that we have to keep our highways clean,” said Mr. Burress, who complained that the signs are inappropriate, especially for families driving along I-75 with children who might inquire of their parents what the Hustler stores sell.

        He said CCV officials told Lamar that the anti-pornography group would lobby the billboard company's other advertisers if the company continued to lease signage to the Flynts.

        Mr. Flynt said other Hustler operations around the country have contracted with Lamar without incident and he suggested that new negotiations with the billboard company may renew the contracts. If billboard advertising is unavailable, Mr. Flynt said, he would likely increase local radio and print ads for his Hustler store. It sells sexually oriented products — including explicit videos and marital aids — and the Hustler line of clothing and lingerie.

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