KNBC, KABC TO ALSO AIR CONDOM ADS

Sometime this week or next, Los Angeles is expected to become the first city in the nation where all three network-owned stations have aired condom commercials.

Beginning Feb. 25, and for three nights last week, KCBS Channel 2 in Los Angeles aired 30-second commercials for the LifeStyles brand condoms featuring a serious-faced young woman saying, “I’ll do a lot for love, but I’m not ready to die for it.”

Now, KNBC Channel 4 and KABC Channel 7 will soon begin airing a new 30-second commercial for the Trojan brand condoms, featuring the statement of Surgeon General C. Everett Koop. The ad, with a stark gray stage setting, is entitled “Sexuality and Public Health.” It does not mention the disease AIDS by name, but the implication is clear.

Ted Bates Advertising here bought the commercial time on the two network-owned Los Angeles stations Friday for the week beginning today on behalf of the Trojan manufacturer Carter-Wallace Inc. The ad has also been placed on KCOP Channel 13 in Los Angeles.

A spokesman for KABC said the ad will run “in prime time or during a sports event” but did not know precisely when.

Late Friday, a spokeswoman for KNBC said she could not say when the ad would run but confirmed that the ad was “just placed today.” She said discussions were centering around placement in or around programs including “Late Night With David Letterman” (airing at 12:30 a.m. Monday-Thursday), “Miami Vice” (airing 9 p.m. Friday), “Stingray” (at 8 p.m. Friday) and “Saturday Night Live” (at 11:30 p.m.). The station is trying to clear the spot for air “as soon as possible,” the spokeswoman said.

The text for the new commercial, as read by an anonymous male voice: “In a recent statement concerning sexuality and public health, the Secretary of Education and the Surgeon General said: ‘The safest approach to sexuality for adults is to choose either abstinence or faithful monogamy. . . . In all other cases,’ the Surgeon General went on to say, ‘an individual must be warned to use the protection of a condom.’ ”

The statements from Koop and Secretary of Education William J. Bennett appear on the mostly blank screen in white lettering.

To date among network-owned stations, only KCBS and its sister station here, WCBS, have run condom commercials for the Life-Styles brand. Both stations were scheduled to air on the same date, but there was a delay at WCBS, and the ads did not run until last week.

On Feb. 19 in a major policy shift, all three major TV networks moved toward getting the subject of condoms as an AIDS preventative on the air in the form of advertisements or public-service announcements.

CBS, which owns four stations, announced that it was up to individual stations to decide. NBC said that it had been its policy for some time to allow its five owned stations to make individual decisions. ABC, whose eight owned stations had had the right to decide for themselves on the condom commercials, announced it would air 30-second public-service announcements.

However, the three networks have not changed policy prohibiting the use of condom commercials in network programming.

NBC has agreed to supply its 200-plus affiliates and owned stations, for use at their discretion, with a 30-second public-service announcement that stresses that using condoms helps guard against AIDS. ABC shows a similar spot, prepared by the American Foundation for AIDS Research. CBS airs a 20-second public-service announcement, which does not use the word condom , urging viewers to seek information about AIDS.

While condom commercials as an AIDS preventative have run in scattered markets around the country, including San Francisco, Detroit and Indianapolis, their appearance has diminished lately.

Meanwhile, there is a growing market for these commercials. Executives at Seltel Inc., a middleman in selling ads to about 70 affiliated stations and 30 independent stations in markets from Abilene/Sweetwater, Tex. to Youngstown, Ohio, say that more than 90% of the independents and more than half the affiliates they represent would be willing to air condom commercials.