Baring the Fax : Nothingness of Agency’s Bus Stop Ad Causes a Stir in Irvine

It’s a case of much ado about nothing.

And that’s exactly what the fellow in the ad is wearing.

It wasn’t enough for Bus Stop Shelters of California, an Irvine firm that owns some of those covered shelters that display giant ads at bus corners.

The story started in May, when Barry & Associates, a Woodland Hills advertising shop, dreamed up a marketing campaign for an Orange County client that distributes fax machines. The ads showed a facsimile of Rodin’s “The Thinker” pondering a fax machine, with the words, “Don’t just think about it.”

And to make people really take notice, Barry and Associates thought, wouldn’t it be great to use a modern male model au naturel ? “Most fax ads are really boring. We wanted people to drive around the block,” said Annette Kostyzak, account supervisor.

In other words, make the ad sexy.

The finished poster got noticed, all right.

Jean Claude LeRoyer, Bus Stop Shelters’ owner, took one look and yanked the ad. After all, he figured, truth in advertising is one thing. Baring all the facts is quite another.

The ad was to appear in Irvine, but LeRoyer was concerned that city fathers would object. “We have a contract with the city,” he said. “We’d like to keep it.”

So Kostyzak took her poster elsewhere--namely to Gannett Transit, which also owns bus shelters in Irvine. Gannett Transit put up the poster late last week at Main Street and MacArthur Boulevard in Irvine.

But the saga may not be over yet.

As far as Irvine City Manager Paul Brady Jr. is concerned, no nudes is good nudes. Brady said that while the county--not Irvine--has final say in the fuss, Irvine would object to the ad. And an employee with the Orange County Public Property Permits Division said the bare fax poster has not yet gotten the county’s blessing--and that it will need to do so.

Barry & Associates, meanwhile, insists that it doesn’t need anybody’s approval, unless there’s a public outcry against the poster. And as of Monday afternoon, a spokeswoman said, there hadn’t been a single complaint.