Los Angeles Metro has announced that some city buses carrying advertisements for the new movie Melania have been moved and rerouted. This comes amid claims that the agency has taken these buses out of service to keep them from public sight ahead of the film’s release on Friday.
Elizabeth Balochana, a member of the Los Angeles Republican Party Central Committee, raised questions on her X account about the rerouted buses that featured ads for melania. She noted that they seemed to be consistently returning to Metro bus stations rather than operating on regular routes.
Balochana suggested that the reason for this was to obscure the movie’s advertisements from the public.
“Do you need to be more discreet?” she asked pointedly.
Balochana isn’t the only one raising concerns. Roxanne Hoge, chairwoman of the Los Angeles County Republican Party, mentioned to her followers that she’s heard over 100 buses were making the rounds promoting melania, yet they were not in service.
“Apparently it’s because some people don’t want ‘Melania the Movie’ to have a successful opening weekend,” Hoge commented on X.
The public transport agency eventually responded to Balochana’s remarks, asserting that there were no ads for melania being removed from service.
“We do not remove advertising from our system. Our buses return to local bus depots during the day for several reasons, such as refueling, operator changes, cleaning, or maintenance,” they stated.
Still, Balochana seemed unsatisfied with this explanation and followed up with a query: “Will the buses advertising Melania operate on their normal routes in the next two days?”
In another response, the public transit agency indicated that some changes in bus schedules were intended to “mitigate potential vandalism,” while they described the route changes as “routine.”
“Buses periodically return to bus yards, and we have moved some to areas that we think will lessen potential vandalism risk. To clarify, having ads on a bus does not mean we’re trying to avoid providing bus service,” LA Metro added.
The bus stop featuring melania posters has reportedly faced considerable vandalism in the city.
melania, which portrays the first lady’s experiences in the 20 days leading up to her husband’s second presidential term, is set to hit theaters nationwide on Friday, January 30th.
