Wasatch Beer's planned billboard for Polygamy Porter advises drinkers to "take some home for the wives" and "when enjoying our flavorful beverages please procreate responsibly." The billboard company is not laughing.
Wasatch Beer's advertising blitz for its new Polygamy Porter began Monday without a highway billboard, rejected by Reagan Outdoor Advertising for being in "bad taste" in a state where the LDS Church once sanctioned the practice of plural wives.
Reagan refused to erect the billboard -- which features a picture of a scantily clad man, cherubs and a six-pack of wives -- despite a yearlong contract between Reagan and the Utah brewery.
"We've exhibited much worse taste than this," Wasatch owner Greg Schirf said. "Somebody got to [Reagan]."
Mormon culture is a recurring target of the Salt Lake City brewer's satire. Previous Reagan billboards for Wasatch featured the buxom blond namesake for St. Provo Girl Pilsner and catchphrases "Baptize your taste buds," "Serving the local faithful" and "Oh, my heck."
"We just do not want to be associated in any way with anything that associates in any way with polygamy," Reagan Outdoor Advertising President Dewey Reagan said. "It's not something that is accepted by the majority of society."
Although Reagan denies a larger conspiracy, Schirf says the sign company exercised a "censorship" clause because of political pressure. Reagan Outdoor Advertising is a major contributor to Utah Republicans and has poured thousands of dollars into the campaign chests of Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and Senate President Al Mansell.
Reagan acknowledged receiving a backlash over previous Wasatch billboards because the ads poked fun at the predominant culture. But while previous ads pricked cultural sensibilities, Polygamy Porter stomps on them, Reagan said.
"The entire ad is offensive," he said. "The fact that it was associated with polygamy and the way the ad was laid out."
Schirf has tried to shop the billboard elsewhere but at least one other Salt Lake City-based company, Young Electric Sign Co., also rejected the Polygamy Porter advertisement.
Utah's Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission has not weighed in on Wasatch's ad campaign, but two aspects of the proposed billboard may push the state's regulatory envelope.
Even though it is against Utah code to encourage overconsumption, the ad for Polygamy Porter asks, "Why have just one?" -- a play on plural marriage and multiple wives that could run afoul of strict interpretations of Utah law.
Another Utah liquor law prohibits ads that "contain obscenity or indecency." While those standards are hard to define, Utah's liquor commission has taken action in the past against alcohol advertisements with sexy images. It did not, however, object to the St. Provo Girl campaign.
Regardless of the packaging, Polygamy Porter will be offensive to some segments of Utah society. The state is home to thousands of practicing polygamists who say they are following fundamental teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints though the practice was disavowed by the church in 1890.
"I sure don't like it, but I don't think there is anything I can do about it," said Owen Allred, leader of the nation's second-largest polygamist church, the Bluffdale-based Apostolic United Brethren.
"We do not believe in alcoholic drinks of any kind," he said. "It's definitely a slam against the polygamists."