Ad: 'Escort Quality, Hooker Pricing'

NEW YORK, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- Community leaders in New York's Bronx borough said they want to get rid of a vodka billboard promising "Escort Quality, Hooker Pricing."

Rafael Salamanca Jr., district manager for the Bronx's Community Board 2, said he and his colleagues want to get rid of the Wodka vodka advertisement over the Bruckner Expressway, which board members said runs counter to their efforts to get rid of the Hunts Point area's reputation as a hotbed of prostitution, the New York Daily News reported Wednesday.

"When I saw it I almost fell out of my seat," Salamanca said. "That's an inappropriate billboard given what the Hunts Point community has gone through in the past."

Brian Gordon, managing partner for Wodka's marketing company, MMG, said the company is open to feedback.

"Listen, if it's offensive it's because the topic is offensive to people and we understand that," Gordon said.

The company previously received criticism from the Anti-Defamation League when it put up a billboard in November promising "Christmas Quality, Hanukkah Pricing."