Residents offended by Dallas billboard with obscene gesture

DALLAS - UPDATE: After our story aired, the super-sized billboard was taken down on Wednesday.

ORIGINAL STORY: A giant billboard in Downtown Dallas showing a woman with an obscene gesture is offending some residents.

The billboard at South Lamar Street and Jackson Street is an advertisement for a Netflix’s new series ‘Glow.’ The four-story-tall billboard is hard to miss. Anyone who walks by cannot help but see it.

The advertisement depicting a woman licking her middle finger is so vulgar, the whole image can’t be shown on TV.

Several residents and parents are appalled.

"It's probably not appropriate for everyone to see,” said resident Brittany Lowe.

"I directed them to look the other way,” said concerned mother Karysa Gurwell. “It's so huge and attention grabbing. That's the first thing they saw. It defeated the purpose of, ‘No, let's walk this way.’"

"I honestly think that's what they're trying to do,” said resident Christopher Edwards. “Because they'll stir up so it will get talking buzz about the show. I personally don't agree with it."

With so many of the giant advertisements appearing downtown, the particular ad made us wonder who is regulating the content.

It turns out the city of Dallas has rules for the size and location but not on the content. The city code only says ‘super graphics’ must be "creative and artful and not strictly a representation of an advertised product."

Mia Rayford, mother of a 2-year-old, doesn't see much in the ad that's artful.

“Too many kids here, like my child,” she said. “Not with the finger. No, that's not appropriate."

Downtown Dallas Inc. says if they receive complaints to their office, they will reach out to the company who sold the advertising space.

FOX 4 reached out to Netflix about the appropriateness of the ad. They have not returned our messages.