OLD ORCHARD BEACH – This seaside resort town plans to substitute the carrot for the stick in its fight to curb cigarette advertising.

Instead of restricting tobacco ads, the Town Council voted 5-0 Tuesday night to reward merchants who voluntarily keep the ads out of windows and storefronts.

“The program will recognize those merchants who do not promote tobacco products to minors,” Councilor Joseph Kline said.

Under the plan, merchants who voluntarily remove the signs will be recognized by the town and given certificates to display on their doors and windows and next to the cash registers in their stores, Kline said.

Town planner Tad Redway is designing the certificate, which features a caricature of Joe Camel, the advertising icon pilloried by anti-smoking activists, crushing a box of cigarettes.

“It says ‘Member of Joe’s Club’ and then ‘We will not advertise tobacco products or sell tobacco to minors’,” Redway said.

Councilors scheduled an Aug. 7 meeting to repeal the town’s existing ordinance restricting tobacco advertising.The decision to scuttle that law was prompted by a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that a similar plan by Massachusetts to ban tobacco advertising near playgrounds and schools violated both federal law and free-speech rights.

Earlier this year, Old Orchard passed its ordinance outlawing outdoor tobacco advertising within 2,500 feet of schools, public beaches, parks or playgrounds.

The measure, believed to be the first of its kind in Maine, applied to outdoor banners, neon signs and posters inside storefronts.