MEDIA / KEVIN BRASS : Buses Won’t Give a Lift to Objectionable ‘Jugs’ Ad

The advertisement’s headline offers “A few good reasons to have your jugs removed.” Above the headline, two water bottles are pictured, with copy below explaining the virtues of a below-the-sink water system compared to the hassles of bottled water.

San Diego Transit officials felt the ad for Everpure Water Systems was in poor taste and refused to display it on their buses. Concern about the possible reaction of mastectomy patients, and women in general, played a large role in their decision.

“We determined that the ad was not something we wanted on the buses,” said Carol Verschoor, manager of marketing and public information for San Diego Transit.

Verschoor contacted her counterpart at North County Transit District, Betty Laurs, for advice. Laurs agreed, and though NCTD was never officially approached to carry the advertisement, she made it clear to Everpure’s advertising agency that her company also was not interested.

“I find the innuendo objectionable and the reference to a woman’s anatomy objectionable,” Laurs said.

Both San Diego Magazine and San Diego Home & Garden ran the ad.

The propriety of the ad “did come up in conversation,” Home and Garden account executive Robin Mackenzie said. “We don’t necessarily agree with or like an ad that we run in the magazine.”

Not running the ad would be a “kind of censorship,” Mackenzie said.

The ad, which is debuting in San Diego before hitting other markets, was developed by the Manhattan Beach-based Thomas Binnion Advertising and Creative Services.

“It is an attention-getting ad,” Binnion said. “People who are going to take offense to it, they’re bringing their own interpretation to the ad.”

People in Del Mar continue to grumble about Daniels Cablevision’s decision to drop the BRAVO channel.

In March, Southwestern Cable, which includes parts of Del Mar Heights, added BRAVO and its foreign films to its basic monthly service after customers chose it as the channel they would most want to be added to the system.

Down the hill, Daniels is using the results of its own survey to justify taking BRAVO and C-SPAN-2 off its dial. BRAVO was never part of Daniels’ basic service, but had been offered for an extra monthly fee, as part of a package with American Movie Classics.

A few Del Mar citizens, including Mayor Brooke Eisenberg, question the methodology of Daniels’ survey, and they haven’t been satisfied with Daniels’ public answers to their questions. They’ve started a petition demanding BRAVO’s return. Many of them remember the fierce fight between Southwestern and Daniels, owned by part-time Del Mar resident Bill Daniels, for the Del Mar franchise in 1981.

“The sample taken was somewhat suspicious,” Eisenberg said, noting that the franchise is up for renewal in 1995, with negotiations set to begin in 1992. “They have a whole channel devoted to the shopping station. Wouldn’t it be better devoted to BRAVO? Nobody asked if we thought it was better to have a shopping channel.”

BRAVO supporters point out that the shopping channel and Turner Network Television are money-makers for the cable system.

Daniels General Manager Joni Odum said money wasn’t the reason for the change in programming. She didn’t know why Daniels’ survey results differed so much from Southwestern’s, but she said her company’s survey firmly established that people would not pay for BRAVO when it wasn’t linked to another service.

“BRAVO customers just weren’t loyal in regards to the survey,” she said, pointing out that Daniels expects to expand its channel capability in the next few years. “We have to offer something for everyone. We only carry one shopping channel. But we carry two public broadcasting channels and Discovery and Arts & Entertainment. We felt we were meeting that cultural niche.”

Meanwhile, Del Mar residents are circulating a petition supporting a bill working its way through Congress that would give communities more control over cable operators.

Television journalist Kimberly Hunt’s cleavage is prominently displayed on the cover of a glossy magazine debuting this month in San Diego. Called the San Diego County City Magazine--which seems to be something of a geographical contradiction--the magazine is the product of three years of market research, according to co-editor and co-owner Bryan Sebeckis. With a $1.95 newsstand price, the new mag is scheduled to come out every other month for the next three issues before going monthly. The 88-page first issue features gushing puff pieces on Channel 10’s Hunt (“a dedicated news anchor person who is extremely talented and works as hard as anyone in the business”), comedian Russ T. Nailz (“a very talented host for company functions. . . . There is probably no money better spent than on making people laugh!”) and Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller (“a man of extreme integrity and loyalty”).

A source suggested to Rumor Control that Landmark Theater’s lease for the Cove theater in La Jolla was due to expire. Due to the rising value of La Jolla real estate, it probably wouldn’t remain a theater, the source said. Not so, according to Harvey Dunn, the theater’s owner. He recently signed a new two-year lease with Landmark, and he expects to renew it for a year after that agreement expires. In three years, Dunn hopes to operate the theater himself, with Landmark continuing to book films.

Midway through the classic “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” the heroes, played by Robert Redford and Paul Newman, escape their pursuers by jumping off a cliff into a river.

The punch line to the famous scene is Sundance (Redford) shouting a rather tame expletive at the top of his lungs. Sure, it’s a cheap laugh, but it is the kicker to the whole scene. When the movie airs on television, the shout is usually bleeped or the scene cut up.

Credit is due to KTTY-TV (Channel 69), which aired the film Wednesday night with the scene intact. Channel 69 film director Gabriel Guzman said he specifically asked station manager Jim Harmon for permission to leave the scream in.

“To me, it was the most important scene in the whole movie,” Guzman said.

KFMB-TV (Channel 8) news director Jim Holtzman has always used a simple technique for boosting ratings during sweeps periods: Send reporters far, far away. Get ‘em a freebie. They’re happy to take a trip. The station gets footage of their reporters spanning the globe. The viewers get kindergarten television travelogues. An exception was Greg Hurst’s weeklong “Return to Vietnam” series, which had real news value. More than anything, Hurst’s feature illustrated the new role of local affiliates, which no longer rely on networks to provide global news features.

Dr. Michael Resnick, familiar to locals for his “Staying Healthy” segments on Channel 10, has signed on as the house physician for ABC’s daily “Home” show.