The bikini-clad employees of a vodka company protested outside the Taxi and Limousine Commission headquarters in Lower Manhattan yesterday following a new ruling that gives some taxi drivers the ability to reject cab ads that they deem too provocative.
The TLC approved a new rule Thursday that lets cabbies who own their vehicles choose not to run racy ads on the top of or inside of their cars, such as for FlashDancers strip club.
The headline-grabbing protest was organized by the owners of Majorska Vodka, who say they are worried their ads — featuring women in bikinis — will be canned.
But cab owners say they are tired of driving around with images they view as offensive.
Mohan Singh, 56, told the New York Times that after he parked his cab, which has an ad for FlashDancers, in his driveway in Queens, his granddaughter announced, “I want to be a FlashDancer.”
The ruling only applies to drivers who own their own cars. About one-third of the taxis in the city are driven by their owners, according to TLC figures. But many of those car-owners lease the taxi medallion from medallion owners. Until Thursday, it was medallion owners who had sole authority deciding which ads to run on cars.
