Ad Industry Puts on a Show to Aid Its Struggling Troops

Tough times call for tough measures--or at least some tough tomfoolery.

The advertising industry, which lost nearly a third of its 11,000 jobs in Orange County during the last year, is rallying to support its down-and-out members. The Advertising Industry Emergency Fund has scheduled a variety show Wednesday at the Irvine Barclay Theatre in hope of raising $10,000.

The 19-year-old fund has paid $750,000 to help Orange County and Los Angeles copywriters, media buyers, designers and photographers, mostly for medical emergencies, according John Vrba, the show’s co-producer.

But this year, a large show of support is especially needed, organizers said. In Orange County, about 11,000 people were employed in the business at this time last year. Now there are about 7,500.

“There have been a lot of layoffs,” said Vrba, who works as senior vice president of Western International Media Corp. in Newport Beach. He added that three or four agencies have gone out of business.

Titled “Way Off Broadway II: The Anything Goes Show,” the variety program will feature singing, dancing and comedy by 65 cast members, all from the local ad industry.

Last year was the first time that the Orange County ad community has used a variety show as its principal annual fund-raiser. Last year, the emergency fund sold 200 seats and raised $2,500.

Vrba said the group is nearly halfway to this year’s goal of selling 500 tickets.

The emergency fund was begun in 1972 as a project to help a free-lance media buyer without health insurance to pay $7,000 in medical bills after a heart attack. Since then, the group has helped a woman who successfully fought a 13-year battle with cancer, the parents of a 22-month-old baby girl who needed heart surgery and a family that lost its possessions in a fire.