With tattooed butts and take-offs on erectile-dysfunction drugs, Louisville’s new promotional campaign has taken an intentionally cheeky direction with 60-second commercials that target young professionals seeking a place to live and out-of-towners looking for a vacation spot.

In one of the promotional ads, which have some Metro Council members questioning what kind of message the city is trying to send, a young man peers unhappily through a fence, musing about wanting a better life and longing for a girlfriend with a “butt tattoo.”

The ad goes on to tout Louisville as “Possibility City,” a place with enough freedom and creativity that no one would criticize you for having a tattoo on your tush.

Another ad plays off the omnipresent Viagra and Cialis commercials for erectile-dysfunction drugs.

Louisville: Where Happiness Lasting More Than Four Hours is Perfectly Normal

A couple gazes at each other as the narrator says: “You know that feeling when the mood is right, but the city is wrong. Louisville can help you enjoy a longer lasting or more satisfying recreational, occupational and personal experience. Ask you doctor if your heart is healthy enough to stand all these possibilities. Happiness lasting more than four hours is perfectly normal.”

Those ads and others have received “an incredibly positive response,” said Pip Pullen, an accounts director for Louisville-based marketing and advertising firm Red7e who worked on the Possibility City campaign.

“Except,” he said, “some members of the Metro Council took umbrage.”

They include Doug Hawkins, R-25th District, who said several of the ads are “in poor taste and not a good reflection on Louisville. They tried to be cutting edge, and I think they crossed the line.”

Several council members have asked Mayor Jerry Abramson’s administration not to spend any more city money on the ads, after an initial $145,000 went to the campaign three years ago.

Abramson spokesman Chris Poynter said that, since then, no more city money has been expended, though the mayor has endorsed the campaign and tries to work the Possibility City angle into most of his speeches.