Racy ad ban for Brazil Grand Prix

City workers have blocked off brothels with concrete blocks

Raunchy adverts trying to drum up custom for brothels in Sao Paulo have been banned ahead of Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix.

Sao Paulo Mayor Jose Serra says he is determined to clean up the city and has ordered the ads to be covered up.

City workers have been taking down billboards with pictures of half-naked women and carrying the slogan "emotion on every curve".

Two establishments have also had their doors sealed with concrete blocks.

Advertisements for the upmarket brothels, Romanza and Cafe Millennium, were posted on 30 billboards around South America's largest city.

Some showed a scantily clad woman made to look as if she could be performing oral sex on a racing driver.

A caption read: "Do you know what happens after the podium?"

Mr Serra ordered that they be covered with white sheets.

'Relaxation clubs'

Over recent years brothel owners have tried to attract wealthy tourists visiting for the grand prix by posting advertisements around Sao Paulo.

Prostitution is not illegal in Brazil, though pimping is.

Brothel owners sometimes say they run "relaxation clubs for men", to try to avoid police attention.

But Mr Serra, who took office in January, has launched an anti-vice campaign, targeting drug hang-outs and pimps.

He has been touted as a possible candidate for next year's presidential election in Brazil.