State Tries to Sell Celibacy to Teen-Agers : Advertising: The $5.7-million campaign targets 12- to 14-year-olds with comments from peers on how to handle pressure to have sex.

Between the sometimes-racy scenes of TV shows such as “Beverly Hills 90210” and “In Living Color,” the state of California has begun to broadcast commercials selling celibacy to teen-agers.

The California Department of Health Services will spend $5.7 million over the next three years--the bulk of it this summer--for its first-ever media campaign aimed at 12- to 14-year-olds that advises, “If you’re not ready for sex, there are a lot of ways to say it.”

The ad campaign’s message of abstinence is a far cry from the sexually oriented sales pitches for everything from jeans to cosmetics that bombard young people today. And it might appear to run contrary to the provocative jump-in-the-sack themes of some of the shows that it accompanies.

But ad executives insist that placing ads on the shows that teen-agers watch is the best way to reach them.

“We’re going against the winds of what kids constantly see,” said Robert K. Gardner, president of Gardner Communications, the San Francisco agency that created the campaign. “Teens are bombarded with ‘do it’ messages all the time.”

The agency certainly has some expertise in talking directly to teen-agers. It creates ads for the popular Hacky Sack bean bags that many teen-agers kick around on the beach. And it also creates ads for Frisbee flying discs.

Now, however, the firm is asking teen-agers to postpone sex. “For every spot we do, there are hundreds of others that are telling teens to do it,” said John Coll, creative director on the campaign. “I suppose that all of us in the media are to blame.”

“No one ever talks to teens about how to resist the pressures,” said Judith Pratt, chief of the health education section in the health department’s Office of Family Planning. “It’s time we did.”

But unlike the anti-drug ads that often feature adults warning kids to “just say no” to drugs--or suffer the consequences--the abstinence ads all feature comments by teen-agers explaining how they handle the peer pressure to have sex.

“Just what part of ‘no’ don’t you understand?” a teen-ager says she has told her boyfriend. And another young woman notes, “You don’t have to have sex to have a special relationship.”

Next week, the state will also begin airing TV spots featuring teen-age boys discussing the peer pressures they face to have sex. And a provocative print ad is scheduled to appear in newspapers next week that features two teen-agers sitting on a bed in the girl’s room, with the boy starting to unbutton the girl’s clothes. “These days,” the headline reads, “more kids are getting involved in after-school activities.”

Officials say the problem of teen-age pregnancies has never been worse. In California, the number of births to teen-age mothers has increased 32% since 1980, Pratt said.

That’s why the agency wants to reach teen-agers directly. “Beverly Hills 90210,” the Fox network show on which the spot premiered last week, frequently garners up to 70% of the female teen-age audience watching TV during its time slot, said John Nesvig, senior vice president of sales at Fox Broadcasting Co.

And radio spots are expected to reach 90% of California’s 12- to 14-year-olds.

One expert on sexuality said that while the campaign eventually could be very effective, it faces many initial problems.

“I could see it having a backlash from kids who might think it’s silly--or just another plot by adults to get them not to do something that’s enjoyable,” said Elinor Accampo, a USC professor who specializes in the history of sexuality. “But it could also help kids who don’t want to have sex feel like they have some support.”