PHILADELPHIA – Twenty-one billboards plugging rapper 50 Cent's (search) movie "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" (search) are coming down amid opposition from community groups.
The billboards show the rapper, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, holding a gun in one hand and a microphone in the other.
"The message could be 'rob to get rich.' ... It's a very offensive message that is part of a mind-set that says you can solve problems with violence," said Bilal Qayyum, a leader of the antiviolence group Men United for a Better Philadelphia.
He praised the billboard company, Clear Channel Outdoor, for agreeing to remove the signs.
"They showed corporate responsibility," Qayyum said.
George J. Kauker, president of the Philadelphia division of Clear Channel Outdoor, issued a brief statement about the decision, saying: "Based on clear and vocal negative response from local Philadelphia community groups, we agreed to remove this particular advertisement," Kauker said. He said the decision applied the Philadelphia area only.
In Los Angeles, Paramount Pictures earlier agreed to removed some billboards for the movie after activists in a south Los Angeles neighborhood rallied in protest. The movie is about a drug dealer who turns away from crime to pursue his true passion — music.
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