These images released by the Virginia Department of Tourism, shows a woman making a heart symbol as part of an upcoming 'Live Passionately' advertising campaign. The sign is one of several associated with the Gangster Disciples and the department adjusted the image to the new one at right. (AP Photo/Virginia Department of Tourism)
Maybe for their next ad campaign they can have an illustration of Michael Vick executing a dog.
Va. tourism pitch mimics gang's sign
RICHMOND, Va. - Virginia is still for lovers, but the state's tourism agency will eliminate images of people making heart symbols with their hands in its upcoming advertising campaign because the gesture is also used by a violent street gang.Isn't flashing gang signs merely a cultural difference?
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The Virginia is for Lovers "Live Passionately" campaign will remove images of models making the hand gesture, one of several signs associated with the Gangster Disciples, Virginia Tourism Corp. officials said Friday. The gesture shows thumbs and index fingers formed into a heart.
"Our intent was to show people using their hands to make a heart to signify 'Virginia is for Lovers,' " the state's longtime tourism slogan, the agency's president Alisa Bailey said in a statement. "For the majority of people, the heart sign is a symbol of love — and the campaign's images intended to convey a love of travel and a love of Virginia."
At first, tourism officials thought the gang was a small group in South Carolina and continued with the ads.
Then the agency received e-mails this week pointing out that the gesture is flashed by members of Gangster Disciples, also known as Black Gangster Disciples. The Chicago-based group is known for its large-scale crack-cocaine operations, and was featured in a chapter of the best-seller "Freakonomics" in which a sociology graduate student gained the trust of gang members to learn about the group's operational structure.
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