Controversial Ad Recruits Students To Become Strippers
Ad Promises Students Free Tuition
POSTED: 1:50 p.m. EDT August 29, 2003
A controversy is brewing across the border as University of Windsor officials plan to meet to discuss an advertisement that recruits students to
become strippers in exchange for free tuition.
The ad, placed by Katzman Enterprises, owner of Cheetah's, Leopard's and Danny's strip clubs, appears in the latest edition of The Lance, the
campus newspaper, according to The Windsor Star.
The company purchased a full-page, color ad on the back page, with the words "We pay your tuition" featured prominently, the paper reported.
"I'm sure we'll hear about it," said Joal Suraci, advertising manager for The Lance. He told The Windsor Star that nobody at the paper
questioned whether the ad was appropriate.
But Jeff LaPorte, vice-president of university affairs for the University of Windsor's Students' Alliance, told The Windsor Star Thursday he
doesn't like the idea of strip clubs recruiting in the student newspaper. He said he will bring the issue to the student government's next
executive meeting.
LaPorte said the alliance typically does not interfere with The Lance's content, even though it publishes and collects mandatory fees from
every student enrolled at the university to support the newspaper.
"I would rather see the student newspaper advertise where you can buy Levis at half price. I would rather this business find some other way to
recruit people," LaPorte told the paper.
Renaldo Agostino, marketing director for the clubs, told the paper that his boss, Rob Katzman, is known for helping dancers through school. He
said about 30 former dancers are now lawyers, dentists and other professionals.
The club has reportedly advertised the tuition offer in the past, just not so prominently.
Agostino told the paper his ad helps cast off the "shady" image associated with strip clubs. "It says, hey, maybe these guys are reputable," he
said. "It makes us more prominent."
Agostino said prospective female dancers would have to work three to four shifts per week while maintaining a B average or better in school in
order to qualify for free tuition, according to the paper.
At the end of the semester, the club would reimburse her tuition fees, up to $1,500. Agostino told the paper the reimbursement could be higher
if OK'd by the boss.
The acting coordinator of the university's Womyn's Centre told the paper the ad is not as offensive as others she has seen in The Lance, but,
she added, "I don't think a student publication is the appropriate venue."
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― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 29 August 2003 18:30 (twenty-two years ago)