On Smoking Ads and Medflies and Cabbages and Kings

CANCER? DON’T WORRY, JUST BE NICE: KABC-TV, Channel 7, is one of two California TV stations(the other’s in Fresno) that is refusing to run one of the state’s new anti-smoking ads. You’ve probably seen or heard some of the commercials. They get right to the point: Smoking stinks. But KABC says the one showing tobacco execs fretting about replacing all the smokers who are either quitting the habit or dying makes the cigarette pushers look like bad guys. In the ad, one of the tobacco honchos says with a laugh, “Gentleman, we’re not in this business for our health.” So maybe the commercial isn’t funny and, you’re right, KABC, it isn’t nice. But it’s true.

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS SAFE: Fathom this if you thought commercials in movie theaters were about as low as advertisers could sink. Now mini billboards are hanging on the inside doors of public restroom stalls. One advertiser who posted his message in the bathroom of a Costa Mesa restaurant urges readers to mention his ad for a discount. Gee, do I really have to?

TEACHER, TEACHER, I DECLARE: Teachers protesting stalled contract negotiations have stopped assigning homework at Foothill High School in the Tustin Unified School District. This is every kid’s dream, right? Not at Foothill High, it isn’t. Some 1,000 students staged a sit-in, on school time, to complain that they weren’t learning. One 17-year-old said she felt as if she were in the third grade, reading aloud in class. “ ‘Hamlet’ read aloud in class does not do it justice,” she complained. So you want homework? Do homework. Only third-graders wait for their teachers to spoon-feed them assignments.

DUKE TO MOONBEAM: SO WHO KNEW?: Former Gov. Jerry Brown came in for a lot of flak over his handling of the war on the Medfly. Many think it cost him his job. Weak-kneed, they called him. A real fruit. Now the flies are circling again amid rumblings about Deukmejian’s own Vietnam. Turns out the state may not keep its promise to end aerial malathion spraying by May 9. The little buggers keep popping up, even in areas that have been sprayed repeatedly. Some experts are saying the flies have already won the war hands down. The wonders of nature never cease to amaze. Vanquishing a fruit in the governor’s office may have been expected, but now the Medfly is making headway against the armor of the Iron Duke.

NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL EARTHY: The Arvida Co., a developer planning to build 5,000 homes in San Clemente, has imported 2,000 sheep instead of heavy machinery to clear the hills of grass and scrub brush. “And there won’t be any pollutants released into the air,” says company VP Horst Schor. Maybe not. But I wouldn’t want to stroll through there without a pair of heavy boots on.

TAKING AIM: I sighted this bumper sticker on the back of a pickup truck headed south on the 405 the other day: “My wife, yes. . . . My dog, maybe. . . . My gun, never.” No comment. I’m unarmed.

A WORKING-CLASS HERO: You’ve all heard the song by John Lennon, and by now, you’ve all probably heard about the photograph. It appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone and the other day, in this newspaper. A nude Lennon is curled up against Yoko Ono, who is fully clothed. He’s kissing her. Some trustees of Fullerton’s Muckenthaler Cultural Center thought it should be pulled from the museum’s “Heroes, Heroines, Idols and Icons” exhibit. The reasons, for public consumption, varied. Some said it didn’t fit with the hero theme, that it made Lennon look weak. Annie Leibovitz, who shot the photograph on the day Lennon was murdered, says he loved it. “The photograph shows he was never afraid to show how human he was,” Leibovitz says. Heroes come in many different guises, but they have at least one thing in common: their humanity.

AND HE LEAVES HAIR ALL OVER THE SINK: A new poll by the Roper Organization shows that American women think men are meaner, more manipulative, self-centered, lazy and sexist than they were 20 years ago. The survey, which interviewed 3,000 women across the country, asked the same questions that it put to American women in 1970. But the study’s authors think men really haven’t changed all that much. They say women are just expecting more and not getting it. The bottom line: More than nine out of 10 women said marriage is still better than living alone. Oh, well. At least it must have felt good to get all that other stuff off their chests.

Dianne Klein’s column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Klein by writing to her at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626, or calling (714) 966-7406.