How Porn Billboards Were Snuck Into Times Square

Surprise, Rudy Giuliani! Porn is back in Times Square.

Adult film company Evil Angel quietly snagged billboard space in New York City’s Times Square to advertise their latest adult feature, I Am Riley. One of the most-viewed porn stars on the internet, Riley Reid is now prominently displayed on multiple billboards throughout the historic Midtown Manhattan area, paying homage to seedier times and bringing porn culture front and center once more.

Unlike the family-friendly NYC Times Square of today, in the 1970s it was a gritty, open-air concrete palace of debauchery. Summers in Midtown had that post-coital odor, like stale sweat and exhaled nicotine. Pornography played on the big screen, theaters promoted live sex shows on the marquees, corner newsstands prominently featured an array of glossy porno mags—it served as the hub for illicit adult entertainment. Advertisements for adult content couldn’t be avoided, practically synonymous with Times Square. It was a far cry from the tourist trap it is today, largely due to then-Mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani, who mercilessly drove the effort to clean up Times Square from the ‘90s to the early 2000s by imposing ordinance and zoning regulations to drive out adult-oriented business. For better or worse, many credit Giuliani for today’s “Disneyfied, family-centric” atmosphere, which has played a key role in developing the city’s tourism trade. Prominent porn ads were a relic of the past—until now.

“I can say I understand his effort and desires trying to make the city seem more family-friendly. I one hundred percent understand those perspectives and everything like that, but sex is how we were all created. Sex is the root of technology and everything that happens in our world. Vogue and everybody else, they all use nude female bodies. They use sex constantly to sell products,” says Riley Reid. “So I want to say [to Giuliani]: I’m sorry that you felt the desire to somewhat banish us from the city life but we have only begun to fight back. We will be back in that city. I don’t see why we shouldn’t be glamorized in that same light. We all watch it, we’re all part of it, we all need sex to create life, so why not just glorify it?”

Millions of tourists now flock to the storefronts where neon XXX signs once stood—signs some claim could be seen flying into John F. Kennedy airport. Riding high on it’s record-breaking year for tourism, New York City welcomed 65.2 million visitors in 2018, and is expecting that number to rise by the end of 2019. According to a study conducted by the Times Square Alliance and Times Square Advertising Coalition, billboards are one of the main attractions in Times Square, where people spend an average of 81 minutes—eight of which are spent ogling billboards. The study also cited how “243,358 people in Times Square post about their experience in Times Square on social media each day.”

“Not being egotistical but I know I’m a big name and I know that I’m recognizable,” says Reid, excited about the ad campaign. “For the people who know who I am to be walking around in Times Square and be stopped in their tracks and be like, ‘Wait a minute, is that Riley Reid on a giant billboard in Times Square? What?’ And then for the people who don’t know who I am, they’ll see it and probably be like, ‘Oh, what is this? What’s going on here?’ And then hopefully do their research, look into it because they’ll be curious, and then see that it’s an adult story documentary porno all mixed together. I think it’s going to be huge for the general public. I hope we have more opportunities like this. I hope other companies will take the time to glamorize themselves in the mainstream media, because if it can be done it should be done.”

With a following larger than most B-list celebrities—over a million followers on Twitter and over two million on Instagram—Reid might be the new Queen of Porn, surpassing Jenna Jameson. Choosing Reid to headline a series of five billboards that start on 42nd Street and 7th Avenue was a strategic move, as was ditching the “Evil Angel” company name. How to get the billboard space and fly under the radar while still advertising their product was an idea hatched by the film’s director, Chris Gentile, who also works as Evil Angel’s chief creative officer.

Courtesy Evil Angel

“I didn’t go out of my way to spell it out for them,” recalls Gentile, on whether or not the company that sold the billboard space knew it was an advertisement for porn. “It’s really safe for work. If I had to guess, I’d say maybe they haven’t put it together. The billboard is an image of Riley, really safe for work, a portrait really, and all it says is: ‘I am Riley: A docuseries coming this fall.’ It looks a lot like something Amazon would run for one of their shows. Performers should be celebrated like any other celebrity, and putting Riley on a billboard moves towards that.”

For Evil Angel’s owner/founder, John Stagliano, seeing his product in Times Square brings back a sense of nostalgia. “I remember when Times Square was the center of adult entertainment, DVDs were sold all around Port Authority. It was 1993 and this one store was duping my movies, everything in this store was copies. A big mafia guy owned the store, so my lawyer gives this guy a call and I got a settlement. It was the only time I ever made money going after someone for my movies,” recalls Stagliano. “My favorite memory: there was a girl I saw at a peep booth once, it was the seventies, I met this girl, the window would come down and there would be no glass and I shall say no more. Back then it was common but it all ended a long time ago. They cleaned it all up.”