Hooters of America Inc., the restaurant chain known for waitresses in low-cut T-shirts, said college basketball’s championship tournament pulled one of its program advertisements because of an employee photograph.
The full-page color advertisement featured a photo of Hooters waitress Sara Hoots and college basketball commentator Dick Vitale, the Atlanta-based chain said today in a statement distributed by PRNewsire. It was scheduled to run on Page 4 of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Final Four Tournament program.
The NCAA said it would consider the ad only if the image of the “Hooters Girl,” as the waitresses are known, was removed, company spokesman Mike McNeil said in the statement.
“That would be like telling General Motors you can advertise but don’t show a picture of a car,” McNeil said. “Sara is a beautiful, intelligent and hard-working employee, and we would never consider removing her image from the ad.”
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McNeil’s statement didn’t give details of the NCAA’s complaint.
Hoots works at the Hooters Restaurant in Selma, Texas, a suburb of San Antonio, where the Final Four tournament will be played tomorrow and April 7 at the Alamodome.
McNeill and NCAA spokeswoman Stacey Osburn didn’t immediately respond to messages requesting comment.
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