HOT SPOT

Like his chicken fajitas in those Naugles fast-food TV spots, Senor Naugles is (em)broiled--in controversy.

He’s on the grill with the local chapter of the Hispanic Academy of Media Arts and Sciences (HAMAS), whose vice president is sending letters to Dick Birmingham, chairman of Naugles Inc. and its ad agency, DDB Needham, saying they find the character “demeaning and stereotypical.”

The commercial has comic Avery Schreiber pitching Naugles with a big sombrero, serape and heavy Mexican accent. (Roger C. Carmel, who died recently, originated the character, also looking rather Frito Banditoed.)

Nogales said HAMAS isn’t complaining about the non-Latino casting: “We’re not against someone representing a Hispanic, because we want them to have that right, as we want the right to represent non-Hispanics.

“(But) we’re excluded from doing a great deal on television, especially in front of the camera, and then when we are ‘used,’ it’s in these kind of silly roles,” said Nogales. “(Senor Naugles) is a throwback considering the context, fake accent and fake gestures. I don’t know of any Hispanics that act that way. I don’t know of any Hispanics who have an accent like that anymore.”

Candy Deemer, on the Naugles ad account for DDB Needham, said the agency made “an open and honest effort” to include Latinos in the ad, including going through “the time, expense and trouble” of casting through the agency’s offices in Mexico City. The agency also “spent three or four months and over $10,000” on casting calls in Backstage and Drama-Logue magazines, and auditioned 200 people to find “good actors--Hispanic or otherwise.”

Deemer said that Senor Naugles has “done what he’s supposed to do”--create awareness for the chain.