Sexual harassment lawyer sues over rejected airport ad, now has a massive billboard

A lawyer sued an upstate New York airport after it rejected a small ad for her sexual harassment law firm. Now she has a massive sign there.

Megan Thomas signed a contract last summer for the ad at Syracuse Hancock International Airport. She wanted it to read: “When HR called it harmless flirting … we called it exhibit A,” but the airport asked her to soften the “harsh” wording.

Instead, she filed a suit. Now, the ad is finally up, with the wording intact — and much larger than she originally intended.

Two walls of the travel hub are emblazoned with the big, pink advertisement, along with a huge photo of Thomas, Syracuse.com first reported.

"When the airport told me the First Amendment did not apply and that they could do what they liked, I realized I would need to bring a lawsuit," Thomas said this week. “I understood that if I won this battle, it would protect not only my rights, but also the rights of other women who come after me.”

Thomas said she intentionally chose to advertise at the airport because many of her clients have reported being sexually harassed on work trips. She also wanted it to be placed in a prominent area.

In her federal lawsuit filed in August, Thomas said the Syracuse Regional Airport Authority, which operates the airport, approved a draft version of her ad. But the following day, she said, the authority told her the ad was not approved and that the slogan was “considered to be a bit harsh."

During a follow-up call, Thomas said she was told the airport authority's leadership believed the proposed ad might be viewed as “threatening” or “intimidating” to men. And the following day, an official said the ad would not be displayed due to concerns about negative feedback from community members and that local politicians might find it offensive, according to her suit.

In court documents, lawyers for the SRAA said the authority offered alternate slogans “that conveyed a similar message in a more professional and less misleading and disparaging manner."

A judge disagreed with their assessment of the tagline, saying in a preliminary decision in January that the authority's claim was “nonsense.”

Judge Anthony Brindisi said Thomas' slogan was no more misleading than a Chick-fil-A ad at the airport featuring a cow and the phrase “Chikin 4 Din Makez U Grin” suggested "that chicken dinners will always make a person happy, or that cows can speak.”

The two sides reached a confidential settlement shortly after the judge's ruling. The new, larger ad went up a few weeks ago.

Thomas — who also has another, smaller ad in the airport — says calls to her Syracuse-based firm have been “way up” since the sign went up, noting that she has hired another attorney and plans to hire another office staffer to assist her.

In a statement issued Tuesday, the SRAA called the judge's decision “unfortunate” but said the settlement “permits both parties to return focus to their core corporate purposes while preserving the authority’s ability to manage and operate the airport."