Billboard sparks heated controversy in military community

A billboard erected off Armistead Avenue in Hampton, Virginia, has members of the military community up in arms.

The ad in question features two men in uniform -- a mailman and a military man -- along with the catch phrase "Who's the daddy?"

As if that left any room for interpretation ... the billboard is, in fact, for paternity testing at a lab in Virginia Beach called Labs To Go.

To add insult to injury, the company also put up a second paternity testing billboard in Norfolk, Virginia, reading "Is the mother a liar?"

Members of the military community have voiced their outrage over the insulting ad campaign.

"I'm offended as a woman that this is something that is being put on billboards," Erin McMenamin, a military spouse of 15 years, told WTKR.

McMenamin, who councils military families, claims billboards send the wrong message to children and husbands.

"They just send a message that men should be worried about what their wives are doing while they are gone," she said.

However, the president of Labs To Go, Cheree Owens, doesn't exactly see eye-to-eye with McMenamin

"It was absolutely not to offend anyone," Owens told WTKR. "It was to spark humor, and it only may offend someone who may fit in that category."

In fact, Owens says she was aware of the controversy the billboard would cause when she designed it.

"It's reality," she said. "This is something that I see in my office every day. A lot of military are coming in having paternity tests because they were gone."

Owens says despite some backlash the signs have received, she has no plans to take them down.