Shoe Maker Shuns Consumers With Vices : New Avia Ads Put Smokers on the Run

Avia, the athletic shoe company, is putting its controversial foot forward in a new advertising campaign that asks certain smokers, heavy drinkers and the overweight not to buy its shoes.

The $9-million campaign is an unusual approach to health-conscious advertising, according to industry observers. Instead of directly associating its product with a happy and healthy lifestyle, Avia has launched a blunt campaign that disassociates itself with people who eschew exercise for cigarettes, liquor and eating binges. The campaign, which uses the “For Athletic Use Only” theme, made its television debut in much of the nation Thursday. In one commercial, an overweight man reclines on a sofa with a bowl of potato chips in his lap and a remote control his hand. The man switches channels to keep pace with action in a basketball and a football game.

“If this is the only way you participate in different sports,” growls Seattle Seahawks line acker Brian Bosworth, “Avia doesn’t want you buying their cross-trainers.”

Print ads also define Avia’s market through exclusion. The ads--placed in publications such as Sports Illustrated, Glamour, Self and Rolling Stone--began to appear early this month.

In one ad, a photograph of cigarette in an ashtray is next to a message with this headline: “If this is the only thing that gives your lungs a workout, don’t buy our shoes.”

These ads, developed by Borders, Perrin & Norrander, a Portland advertising agency, are designed to attract certain buyers and boost sales--not alientate potential buyers, said Patrick Kipisz, director of advertising for the Portland-based Avia, the nation’s fifth biggest seller of athletic shoes.

“We’re saying Avia designs shoes for active, vibrant people,” Kipisz said. “We’re not a shoe for everyone. We produce a shoe for people who take exercise and sports seriously.”

Kipisz said the campaign was not a conscious effort to boost efforts designed to halt smoking, overeating and alcohol abuse.

However, some members of the anti-smoking lobby are pleased. John Banzhaf, head of the Washington, D.C.-based Action on Smoking and Health, said, “It’s a plus from our point of view. It’s drawing attention--in a forceful way--not only the hazards of smoking, but to the inconsistency of being an athlete and smoking at the same time.”

Banzhaf said the tone of the ads are not denigrating. “I don’t think its bashing when someone points out that smoking and obesity is bad for your health,” he said.

However, the Mesa, Ariz.-based American Smokers Alliance, a group designed to promote smokers’ rights, has a different view of the campaign. The group Thursday criticized Reebok International, Avia’s parent firm, which did not respond.

“We think this campaign shows poor judgement,” said David Brenton, chairman of the alliance.”We are certain that it’s going to backfire in a big way.”

However, Guy Day, co-founder of Chiat/Day, the Los Angeles-based advertising agency, said the campaign would attract the health-conscious without affecting the attitudes of others. “They’re trying to carve out the high performance market,” said Day, who resigned from Chiat/Day in 1986. “I don’t think it will offend smokers, over-eaters or heavy drinkers. . . . I don’t think anyone is particularly proud of smoking, drinking or being overweight.”