50 Cent and Paramount's ad campaign

I found this on the model's group Mecca's World. Check her out!

I came across this info on the news and just wanted to jumpstart your day with a lil convo. 50 Cent's biographical film "Get Rich or Die Tryin" is slated to be in theaters in November. As part of marketing for the film...there are billboard advertisements that feature 50 with his back turned, arms out-stretched, holding a mic in one hand and a gun in the other. Apparently, the billboards are being strategically placed in communities that are thought to most likely go see the film.

Several residents in LA communities are in an uproar over the billboards being placed in their neighborhoods. They argue that the message in the advertisement only perpetuates what takes place in their communities on a regular basis. The billboard shown on the news was next to an elementary school. The protesters are calling for the billboards to be removed from their neighborhoods and
furthermore taken out of the entire city of Los Angeles.

1.)Do you feel the arguments of the protestors are valid or invalid?

2.)Some individuals blamed 50 Cent for irresponsibility...Others blamed Paramount for their marketing scheme...Then others held both 50 and Paramount accontable. If this is wrong...who is at fault?

I feel that the billboards are inappropriate and perpetuate violence. I don't think that putting them down will prevent violence, and I am all for freedom of speech. But why add fuel to the fire? This displays the power of choices and making the right one, but not everybody will read it that way.