MTA Says Offensive Bus Ads Will End Within 60 Days

Teen girls participating in Chazaq’s JWave TeAgudath Israel’s Campaign Drew Support From Parents, Religious Leaders, Transit Workers, And Elected Officials Across New York City

After months of objections from parents, religious leaders, transit workers, and elected officials, advertisements promoting an adults-only Manhattan venue are expected to disappear from New York City buses within 60 days.

Agudath Israel of America announced the development after Chief of Staff Avrohom Weinstock testified before the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s board, urging the agency to curtail the widespread campaign for the Museum of S*x. Displayed across the fronts of more than 3,000 buses, the advertisements have become nearly impossible to avoid throughout the five boroughs.

For parents seeking to protect their children from adult material, the matter goes beyond personal taste. City buses travel through residential neighborhoods, stop near schools, and pass children walking to shul, camp, or the playground. Unlike an age-restricted website or establishment, the advertisements confront families in public spaces they cannot reasonably avoid.

Agudath Israel argued that using public transit vehicles to promote an adults-only venue violates the standards the MTA is responsible for enforcing. Weinstock’s testimony followed months of advocacy, including a four-page legal letter sent to MTA leadership in July.

“Please curtail this offensive ad campaign,” Weinstock told the board, “and dialogue with representative groups to head off such situations in the future.”

In a written response, the MTA informed Agudath Israel that the advertisements would rotate out of its system within 60 days. Agudath Israel has not reviewed the underlying contract, and the agency’s wording appears to describe an early conclusion to the campaign rather than an immediate cancellation.

Marketing Brew reported in April that the campaign began in December and was scheduled to continue through the end of 2026. The publication said more than 3,000 buses were carrying the museum’s logo, giving the venue citywide exposure on a scale few advertisers achieve.

Daniel Gluck, the museum’s founder and executive director, described that saturation as central to the campaign. Gluck told Marketing Brew that the goal was to place the logo on buses throughout New York and make it a recognizable part of the city.

The museum was also considering a more expansive campaign. Gluck said it might add image overlays and extend its advertisements to the sides of buses. According to Agudath Israel, the proposed next phase could have included more explicit imagery and potentially covered entire bus exteriors.

That possibility added urgency to the opposition. Had the current campaign continued without resistance, New Yorkers could have faced a larger and more graphic version across the transit system.

Agudath Israel was not alone in raising concerns. At the MTA’s June 24 board meeting, several speakers criticized the campaign and its effect on children. Alexander Kemp of Transport Workers Union Local 100 called the advertisements “extremely offensive to children” and said they should be removed.

Bernard Fishman told board members that the campaign “demean[s] us,” “cheapen[s] the public space,” and harms children. Rabbi Abraham Zimmerman, representing the Rabbinical Alliance of North America, argued that the signs force families to confront material that conflicts with their religious convictions and moral standards.

Rita Friedman, a daughter of Holocaust survivors, also spoke against the campaign, describing the advertisements as repulsive and harmful to her family’s efforts to preserve its values. Their testimony established that the objections extended beyond one organization or one appearance before the board.

The controversy also carries a troubling history. In 2018, the same museum placed similar advertisements on the fronts of city buses. Drivers reported that some passengers responded with lewd remarks and gestures, particularly toward female operators. The MTA began moving the signs after transit workers raised concerns about harassment and employee safety.

Kalman Yeger, then serving in the City Council, said at the time that public buses should carry family-friendly advertising. Eight years later, the campaign returned on a far greater scale.

Agudath Israel credited Assemblymembers Kalman Yeger and Simcha Eichenstein and Councilwoman Inna Vernikov with conveying the community’s concerns and urging the MTA to withdraw the advertisements.

“I want to acknowledge numerous individuals and elected officials, including Assemblymen Kalman Yeger and Simcha Eichenstein, and Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, who expressed the community’s deep concerns with these pervasive ads and urged the MTA to have them withdrawn,” Weinstock said. “And [we] appreciate the MTA for engaging with us. There is more work to be done.”

MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber told critics at the June meeting that the agency must operate within First Amendment constraints and cannot reject an advertiser solely because members of the public object to its message.

“I’m very sympathetic to those folks,” Lieber said. “Inevitably, in the world we live in, there are going to be people who have different standards.”

Lieber said the MTA had required the museum to add its address to the advertisements. Earlier versions displayed little more than the venue’s name, creating confusion over why the wording appeared across a public bus.

Agudath Israel maintained that the MTA can address the campaign under its existing rules without creating a new form of censorship. The agency restricts advertisements promoting certain adult-oriented services and pledges to maintain a safe, welcoming environment for employees and customers, including minors. Its standards also call for respect toward New York’s multicultural, multiethnic, and religiously diverse population.

The question is not whether every New Yorker must share the same religious or moral outlook. It is whether vehicles used by schoolchildren and families should serve as moving promotions for an adults-only attraction—and whether the MTA is applying its own standards consistently.

OUTFRONT Media manages much of the MTA’s advertising inventory and works with advertisers on placement, duration, and reach. The MTA, however, retains policies governing what may appear throughout its system and a review process for proposed campaigns.

The expected removal does not settle the broader issue. Agudath Israel has asked transit officials to consult representative community organizations so inappropriate campaigns can be addressed before thousands of signs appear. Once an advertiser has blanketed the city, parents, riders, and employees are left challenging a decision already imposed on them.

Rabbi David Zwiebel, Agudath Israel’s executive vice president, said the effort represents a form of communal advocacy whose importance cannot be measured in grants or financial assistance.

Rabbi Zwiebel pointed to Agudath Israel’s work increasing security funding for New York’s nonpublic schools from $4.5 million to $90 million over the past decade, as well as its role in securing passage of the federal scholarship tax credit. Such initiatives are critical to the financial and safety needs of the community and its mosdot, Rabbi Zwiebel said, but this campaign addressed a different responsibility.

“Yet here is an advocacy item with no material benefit to anyone, and yet so important to us because it helps, in some small way, parents to raise their children today with kedushah,” Rabbi Zwiebel said. “That says something very special about who we are as a community.”

For families who have encountered the advertisements outside their homes, schools, and shuls, their removal is more than a symbolic concession. It recognizes that parents have a legitimate interest in what a public authority places before children using city streets and transportation.

The advertisements are now expected to disappear within 60 days. The lasting test will be whether the MTA applies its policies before another objectionable campaign reaches thousands of buses—and whether the agency gives families and religious communities a voice before, rather than after, such material enters their neighborhoods.

By Shabsie Saphirstein