© 2024 254 North Front Street, Suite 300, Wilmington, NC 28401 | 910.343.1640
News Classical 91.3 Wilmington 92.7 Wilmington 96.7 Southport
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
CAPE FEAR MEMORIAL BRIDGE CLOSURE: UPDATES, RESOURCES, AND CONTEXT

NY Cabbies Win Right Veto Racy Ads On Vehicles

Some New York cab drivers have complained that the companies they work for were putting racy ads — for strip clubs, for example — on their cars. And those ads were embarrassing and tested their ethical and religious beliefs.

Yesterday, the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission voted unanimously to allow cab drivers who own their cars to veto the ads put on top of their vehicles.

The New York Times reportson the story of one cab driver:

For Mohan Singh, the breaking point came last year when his granddaughter, who was 6 at the time, saw a seductive woman in an advertisement affixed to the roof of his taxicab. She proudly announced that she suddenly knew what she wanted to be when she grew up.

"The car was parked in my driveway, and the advertisement was there for FlashDancers," said Mr. Singh, 56, whose taxi has had rooftop advertisements since the day he began driving, five years ago. "And my granddaughter said, 'I want to be a FlashDancer.' "

Disgusted, Mr. Singh recalled how his taxicab, while parked in front of his South Ozone Park, Queens, home, had elicited a similar response from an 8-year-old nephew — only the boy had proclaimed his desire to become a client of FlashDancers — a Manhattan strip club.

Under the new rules, Singh can veto the ad. But as the AP reports, the new rule doesn't "apply to drivers who lease their taxis from owners."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.