CHICAGO — A billboard that was recently rejected from New York's Times Square will make its Chicago debut in River North on Wednesday.
The ad for anti-snoring mouth spray company SnoreStop shows a uniformed U.S. soldier embracing a Muslim woman, with the tagline "SnoreStop: keeping you together" and hashtag "#betogether."
It will pop up on a south-facing billboard on LaSalle Street near Hubbard Street this week, according to Darren Shuster, a company spokesman.
The billboard went up in Los Angeles last month to much controversy, and last week, Shuster told DNAinfo New York that Clear Channel Communications denied SnoreStop's request to put up the same billboard in Times Square.
Representatives told the Camarillo, Calif.-based company that the ad could not go up because of its "sensitive nature" and "uncomfortable imagery," Shuster said.
The ad was inspired by a real couple, veteran Jamie Sutton and his Muslim wife Aleah, according to the company.
SnoreStop is in the business of "keeping people together," the company said in a statement, and it wanted to focus on a couple that doesn't typically show up in mainstream media.
Critics have said the company is insensitive to military servicemen. SnoreStop admits that the ad is "bound to raise eyebrows," but the company's chief branding office,r Christian de Rivel, said that it is not intended to offend.
"There is no nudity or bigotry or hostility in our #betogether campaign," he said. "In fact, we are specifically and aggressively promoting diversity, equality and harmony."
