Local billboard company rejects ad with puppet cleavage

You think it’s not easy being green.

Try being a pink Muppet-like character in the touring off-Broadway show “Avenue Q.”

Lamar Advertising recently rejected a bus shelter advertisement that would have revealed the character Lucy the Slut’s furry pink cleavage.

 “My lovely rep (at Lamar) didn’t have a problem with it,” said Kristy Maple, marketing director for New Space Entertainment, which produces the Broadway in Colorado Springs series. “We were in the process of putting it on the presses when one of the top execs saw it and said, ‘I don’t think it’s appropriate for the Colorado Springs market.’”

Lamar account executive Jeff Moore said he has a simple test to see what’s appropriate for bus ads and billboards: “If I have to explain it to my 4-year-old or my grandmother, we don’t put it up.”

Was it the fact that it was cleavage or the fact that it was puppet cleavage that swayed Moore?

“It’s the fact that it’s cleavage,” he said.

He couldn’t say if it’s something Lamar might run in other markets.

“I just know in this market, we prefer to walk a little more conservatively,” Moore said.

The offending Lucy the Slut has been replaced by head shots of other characters.

The Tony award-winning musical, which, according to the posters, contains “60 percent adult situations, 40 percent foam rubber,” is scheduled to play the Pikes Peak Center on March 16 and 17.

Be forewarned: There will be cleavage.