It’s not quite the Maxim ad, but …

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I finally happened to be standing outside my local coffee shop here in Nashville when one of these city buses rolled by, and yes, that’s large-type T – R – U – C – K – W – R -E – C – K -S – ? screaming out in blood red from the top of the image, followed by the partly obscured, quite-clear-in-intent message: You deserve to be paid.

The Texas firm’s now infamous “Serial killers” ad it is not, but I don’t think you can get a more straightforward example of ambulance-chasing than this, quite an annoying thing to see rolling by daily through my neighborhood. Another view:

A second view of the Nashville city bus, wrapped with an ambulance-chasing ad…

A photo posted by Overdrive (@overdrivetrucking) on

So much for civic pride, to say nothing of the bus driver’s lot.

There happens to be a bus stop at the rear of my backyard, which butts up against the block behind the house. Not exactly easy to to feel good about the city you live in with this thing rolling by every 20 minutes.

At once, that doesn’t tell the whole story. This lawyer’s well-known enough around the region to be a sort of kitsch object — maybe running joke would be a better phrase — in some senses for those who don’t think about the nature of what’s clearly a successful business. Bart Durham‘s so well-known for his soap-opera-esque TV-commercial dramatizations of the stories of some of his clients, and the money he’s won them, that he’s a veritable regular in a whimsical contest put on by the local alternative weekly. The annual “You are so Nashville if [fill in the blank here]” contest winner in 2012 was Holly Matthews’ “You are so Nashville if you think Bart Durham should direct the Real Housewives of Nashville.”

Bart Durham, Nashville SceneQuoted on her inspiration for the witticism, if you can call it that, Matthews told the Nashville Scene it had to do with “years and years” of seeing those TV ads. “It seems like he and the Real Housewives would get along well,” she said.

Too bad everyone clearly isn’t as dismissive of Durham. Given the money he’s able to spend on advertising, he’s certainly not wanting for clients.