‘FULL METAL’ FRONT

As we reported in April, the original ad line for Stanley Kubrick’s long-awaited “Full Metal Jacket” (“In Vietnam, the wind doesn’t blow--It sucks”) was rejected by the Boston Globe. John Jacobs, Warners’ man in charge of newspaper campaigns, was anticipating similar reactions from Bible Belt newspapers.

But what started in Boston has reached gale force conditions. According to Jacobs, “It looks like two-thirds to three-quarters of the papers in the movie’s release markets have turned down the ad. But the papers that approved have a total circulation equal to the sum of those that rejected it.”

The roll call: Chicago Tribune gave it a thumbs up, Chicago Sun-Times a thumbs down. The Dallas Times-Herald approved, not the Dallas Morning News. Splits also occurred in NYC, San Diego and Salt Lake City. In San Francisco, the Chronicle went with it, the Examiner didn’t. In L.A., both The Times and the Her-Ex have accepted the ad.

The papers that vote thumbs down will use alternative, Kubrick-approved ad copy: “Vietnam can kill me But it can’t/Make me care.”