A Marketing Offensive Against Noriega

Wherever Manuel A. Noriega is hiding, corporate marketing mavens seem to have already found him.

Today, a print ad for Jiffy Lube that features an unflattering photo of Panama’s ousted leader-on-the-run is scheduled to appear in several West Coast newspapers. And next week, a computer software company in Eugene, Ore., will begin selling a computer game called “Find Noriega!” in which players join CIA agents in “chasing” the deposed dictator.

But don’t look for Noriega, who is accused in two U.S. indictments of pocketing millions in bribes and drug profits, to cut in on any of this action.

“This is part of being in a democratic society,” said Mark Brown, president of Abracadata Ltd., which will sell the software for $69.95. “I don’t know if we’ll make a lot of money, but we’re having fun doing it.”

The software, which is expected to be sold at computer stores next week, features a chase that takes players into secret CIA meetings; to the home of PTL founder Jim Bakker, where his wife, Tammy Faye, is interrogated, and even to Elvis Presley’s “Graceland” mansion in Memphis, Tenn., where a Noriega look-alike is found disguised as the king of rock ‘n’ roll.

Just as off-the-wall is the new Jiffy Lube ad.

The headline of the ad says, “Maybe he’s just waiting at his dealer for an oil change.”

The small print in the ad asks: “Did your last dealer oil change leave you feeling a little like a missing person?”

The ad was created in two days by the Los Angeles office of the ad agency Della Femina, McNamee WCRS Inc. “Ever the opportunists,” said Peter Stranger, the agency’s president.

Stranger said that even though American soldiers are being killed, he doesn’t believe the ad is in poor taste. “This is not in any way related to the people who are dying,” said Stranger. “The ad is about Noriega, and with a scumbag like that involved, I think it’s fine.”