‘In Your Face’ Ads Are on a Roll but Also Draw Fire

Theory No. 1: Southern Californians have been subjected to every sort of advertisement imaginable.

Theory No. 2: Wanna bet?

Just when you thought you’d seen it all, along comes a real doozie. This one’s courtesy of KQLZ “Pirate Radio,” the station that prides itself on being outrageous. At prime Southland locations, billboards blare this message: Screw the Rules.

“It’s not as if we’re telling people to break the speed limit or to kill someone,” said Scott Shannon, Pirate Radio’s outspoken morning disc jockey, vice president and program director. “We’re referring to the rules of radio.”

Besides, asked Shannon, “What does Bart Simpson say?,” alluding to the wildly popular young brat who frequently mouths off on Fox Broadcasting’s animated TV show “The Simpsons.”

Is this, indeed, the decade of Bart Simpson-as-advertising model?

Much like the mischievous Bart, it does appear that more ads are brashly questioning conventional authority. Earlier this summer, a Reebok ad showed bungee jumpers--people jumping from a bridge head first with special equipment tied to their feet. Last year, in a Union Bay jean ad, two drivers played “chicken” until one careened off a cliff into a river. It appeared that only the driver’s Union Bay Jeans, which floated away, survived the crash.

Some advertising experts suggest that popular TV shows can strongly influence advertising. About five years ago it was MTV, rife with quick cuts and pulsating music that changed the look and sound of many TV commercials. Now, some experts suggest, it is the in-your-face themes of several popular Fox shows--such as “The Simpsons” and “Married With Children”--that are helping to add the newest wrinkle to advertising.

“Advertisers wouldn’t be doing this unless they felt they were riding a wave,” said Carol Moog, a clinical psychologist, ad consultant and author of “Are They Selling Her Lips?,” a book on current advertising psychology. “Advertisers wouldn’t have the guts to pursue this counter-establishment attitude if the TV shows weren’t popular.”

This isn’t the first time Pirate Radio has caused commuters to do double takes. Its previous campaign featured a picture of a pig’s face plastered over the face of Shannon next to this rather nasty expression: “Bite Me.” As for the current “Screw the Rules” slogan, well, Shannon says someone simply thought it up during a recent 30-minute meeting of station management. “This is not a sophisticated, long-term marketing campaign,” he said.

But clearly, the Pirate Radio ads have ticked off some local folks.

The city of Irwindale, for example, received enough letters and phone calls from residents complaining about the Pirate Radio billboard that it has asked the station to remove it. And in Los Angeles, the owners of the California Driving School are unhappy about the campaign: one “Screw the Rules” billboard is positioned directly underneath the California Driving School name on a building that the driving academy formerly owned.

“I find it very offensive,” said George Hensel, who formerly ran for the California Senate and is now president of the California Driving School. “I’d place it in the category of flag burning.”

But ad experts put it in the category of clever marketing. “To use an anti-authoritarian stance to market to teen-agers is always a good idea,” said Ken Mandelbaum, president of the San Francisco agency Mandelbaum Mooney Ashley, which created the short-lived Union Bay ad. “The best way to get kids to do something is to infuriate their parents. Of course with adults, you have to be more cautious.”

Some trace the roots of today’s anti-authority advertising back to 1987, when the then-little-known Roseanne Barr appeared in a string of regional ads for the “Giant” grocery chain, which was owned and operated by Ralphs Grocery Co.

In the ads, Barr, often stuffing fists full of food into her mouth, as much as admitted that grocery shopping is a royal pain. Although the chain of factory-sized grocery stores flopped, the ads were an immediate hit. By 1988, the often crude-talking Barr had her own hit TV show.

But in-your-face advertising has since become far more common. The newest set of Calvin Klein TV spots, directed by “Twin Peaks” creator David Lynch, shows one love-hungry lad who mouths, “I’d do a low crawl over two miles of broken glass just to smell the tracks of the truck that hauled her Calvins to the laundry.”

Some of today’s advertisements seem to almost dare the public to react. This week, for example, look for neon billboards all over Los Angeles promoting a new nightly sports show on Prime Ticket Network that tease: How to Score Every Night At 10.

“I suspect I will get my share of phone calls from parents,” said Bob Gold, vice president of public relations at Prime Ticket. “We expect it will create a buzz.”

Even Burger King positions itself as a challenger to the status quo in its current campaign, “Sometimes you’ve got to break the rules.” Burger King also jumped on the Simpson’s bandwagon with product promotions featuring Simpson characters--including five different Simpson dolls that it begins selling nationwide this week. The hamburger chain expects to sell up to 15 million of the fabric dolls.

Of course, Burger King officials contend that they don’t mean anything naughty. “Our slogan’s not about breaking the law,” said Cori Zywotow, a company spokeswoman. “To compete in the ‘90s, sometimes you’ve got to go above and beyond what’s expected. You’ve got to give that customer extra ketchup--or an extra slice of cheese.”

Jay Chiat Sees Agency’s Situation Differently

For months now, the media have been documenting a slew of problems at Chiat/Day/Mojo’s New York office. To that, Chairman Jay Chiat asks: What problems?

“On a worst-case basis, the New York office will still be profitable,” said Chiat, in a telephone interview from New York. Chiat downplays the many clients that that office has recently lost--as well as the mangement turnover, including last week’s unexpected loss of creative director Tom McElligott, who left to start his own agency.

“It was a shock, but not really a surprise,” said Chiat. “If you’ve been an entrepreneur like Tom, I suppose this should be expected.”

As if to downplay the loss of McElligott, Chiat said he will not be replaced. Instead, Lee Clow, who already oversees all West Coast creative, will also oversee the East Coast.

Meanwhile, Chiat said the Venice-based agency’s recent business losses in New York have been exaggerated, even though its annual billings have shrunk to $125 million from $180 million.

Last week, the agency lost the $4-million Arrow shirt business, but Chiat said that was expected after the shirt maker was sold.

And despite losing about $32 million in Reebok business earlier this year, Chiat notes that Chiat/Day still handles about $12 million in ads for the athletic shoemaker, including its line of kids shoes and several other projects.

But he offers no excuses for the $35-million account of Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, which recently put its business up for review. “We blew it,” Chiat said, “but we think we have a chance of keeping it.” The cruise line is expected to name its agency as early as this week, and Chiat/Day is among the four finalists.

Getting German Youth to Vote--Via L.A.

How do you get people to vote in the upcoming German election? You hire a Los Angeles jingle house, of course.

Last week, the Christian Democratic Union, a German political party led by Chancellor Helmut Kohl, hired Killer Music to create music and lyrics for the party’s media campaign. Killer Music has written a number of familiar commercial jingles, including “Go Tell Your Mama What the Big Boys Eat” for Wheaties, “Gatorade Is Thirst Aid” and the “Levi’s 501 Blues.”

The song for the German elections will be recorded in English, for airing on German TV and in theaters. “The Christian Democrats want to reach the German youth,” explained Dain Eric Blair, executive vice president of Killer Music. “And most young people speak English and listen to American records.”

New PC Monthly Sets Ad Mark for Startups

Not all magazines are starving for ads these days. In fact, a new entry claims to have set the record for most pages of advertising in a first issue.

That publication is PC Sources, a monthly from Ziff-Davis Publishing that is aimed at consumers and companies that buy computer products directly from manufacturers. Its first issue, which hit newsstands last week, was stuffed with 417 ad pages.

The previous record for a premiere issue was the 177 ad pages placed in M magazine in 1983, according to a study by Samir A. Husni, author of the annual Guide to New Magazines. PC World’s first issue, in 1983, had 173 ad pages.