Naughty billboard raises eyebrows

AUSTIN (KXAN) - It is tough to ignore when you are driving by. A big billboard for a business called Novopelle. It is advertising laser hair removal, but some people say it is suggesting too much and is tasteless.

"Isn't that the point of a billboard?" said Jahnavi Sievert, of Mana Culture . "It's big, loud and obnoxious."

The sign down the street from Sievert's jewelry shop is something her customers notice right away. Since it went up a few weeks ago, people have complained about it to her.

"She didn't like it at all," said Sievert, talking about one of his customers. "She found it offensive."

"This billboard did the trick," said Ritter Vonali of Novopelle, the company advertised on the billboard. "It's provacative. People do a double take. It's just something they don't expect to see everyday."

The business behind the billboard put it up to show people how inexpensive laser hair removal can be, but it got more than it bargained for.

"Kind of a sexual innuendo that's going on with that," said J.B. Castillo from Southside Bicycle Shop.

Other shops started noticing not everyone saw the sign the same way.

"We pretty much just laugh it out," said Castillo. "There's nothing we can do about it."

And, as such, most people find it funny.

"I think people take things too seriously," said Doug Hancock, a nearby customer. "You've got to have a sense of humor."

"Oh, I love it!" said Teo Ledesma, another nearby customer.

In the sign's first week alone, Novopelle gained 15 new walk-in customers and countless others for the other shops feeling its effect.

"I think it's great," said Sievert. "I love anything that gets attention. I think it's great marketing."

Novopelle has rented the space for the next year and plans to go with something even riskier in the near future.