LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – Anyone who has lived in Las Vegas for any amount of time has, at one point or another, seen something in the valley that left them thinking, “Only in Las Vegas.”
A new set of billboards for a local injury lawyer fits that description.
“Injured while searching for dead bodies at Lake Mead? Demand Compensation!” reads one of the billboards located across from Sam’s Town Casino in the Las Vegas Valley.
The billboard is an advertisement for Parke Injury Law Firm. Steven Parke, who established the firm, said the billboard is meant to be a joke — to catch people’s eyes and stand out among dozens of other lawyer billboards seen around the Las Vegas valley.
“The world as it is right now is depressing,” Parke told KLAS. “We get bad news every day, so why not throw something up that’s going to make people either chuckle, let them think about something, or what I thought would happen is no one would even bother to read it, but I guess I was wrong. People do read billboards. “
Parke, who has been a practicing attorney for about 12 years, admitted that not all feedback has been positive. But he claims the billboard “is dripping with irony,” and attempts to play on “the idea of the greedy attorney mixed with the person who doesn’t want to accept any responsibility for anything they’ve done … which is very timely today.”
Parke also said he’s been compared to the character of Saul Goodman from AMC’s “Better Call Saul” — who is shown to do just about anything to get clients and win cases — because of his new billboards. But Parke feels those critics are missing the point.
“Some people did see it and [it] confirms every suspicion they have about attorneys, which is, ‘Look at this guy, he’s going after the last shred of dignity here, he’s chasing every buck he can, he’s the Saul Goodman of Las Vegas,'” Parke said. “And the joke is kind of on them because that was kind of the point.”
When asked if there’s truth behind the new billboard — could someone demand compensation if “injured while searching for dead bodies at Lake Mead”? — Parke said it was possible. “But as any attorney would tell you, it depends,” Parke added. “I hope you don’t go out searching for a dead body, but if you do, I guess you’re taking your chances.”
Parke’s new Lake Mead-themed billboard is also not the first time he’s opted for humor over accolades when it comes to advertising. He’s already had billboards with quotes from Mike Tyson (“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face”) and rapper Vanilla Ice (“If you have a problem, yo, I’ll solve it”).
Another simply said, “Fellas, I gotta have more cowbell!” — a reference to a “Saturday Night Live” sketch that has nothing to do with law.
But none of Parke’s billboards have caught the public’s attention like his most recent one mentioning Lake Mead.
Parke said only two bodies had been discovered by the time the billboards were created. Now, authorities have been alerted to four sets of human remains since May as the lake’s water level recedes.