Vasquez Wants ‘Tag Rag’ Ads Wiped Out : Graffiti: Bus shelter images tout vandals, O.C. supervisor says. Clothes maker scoffs at charge.

County transportation officials are taking aim at bus shelter ads for Tag Rag clothes, saying they promote the grunge look and lifestyle of graffiti vandals, commonly called taggers.

“It’s inconsistent to spend $1.4 million a year to eliminate graffiti” while permitting advertising that promotes the tagger lifestyle, Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez said at Monday’s Orange County Transportation Authority meeting.

But one owner of the Los Angeles-based clothing firm said the fuss is misguided--his company does not endorse graffiti taggers.

“It’s ridiculous,” said Tag Rag co-owner Orly Dahan. “We’re all-American. We’re retro--we researched 1940s styles and fabrics. We’re non-racial, nonpolitical. We’re strictly fashion. If it’s something taggers identify with, it’s strictly unintentional. “

Dahan said the company name was chosen for its “rhythm” and borrows from clothing industry slang: tag, as in price tags or manufacturer’s tags, and rag, a term for clothes.

The publicity refers to the clothing as “inner-city street and thrift-store chic.” Designer Michele Dahan called it “the Brady Bunch meets the streets.”

Promising to use the “power of persuasion,” OCTA chief Stan Oftelie said he will ask officials with Bus Shelters of California Inc.--the firm that sold the ad space--to pull the poster-size advertisements.

Scott Kraft, president of the Tustin-based firm, did not return calls for comment Monday.

If the firm refuses, Oftelie told transportation board members, the authority could vote to change bus stop locations so its buses drive right past the shelters.

About 1,000 of the county’s 7,000 bus stops have shelters, which are built by private companies. The companies give cities a share of the advertising revenue in exchange for the building permits.

To emphasize his point, Vasquez showed snapshots Monday of a Garden Grove bus shelter where the glass had been etched by graffiti vandals.

He said shelters in Garden Grove, Orange, Seal Beach and several other cities currently display Tag Rag ads. A complete list was not available, but all 800 bus drivers today will be given forms to inventory all 1,000 bus stops for the ads, he said.

“What I know about the tagging crew culture and the type of apparel and modus operandi would certainly cause me to believe there’s a correlation,” said Vasquez, who is also a member of the county’s anti-graffiti task force, Vasquez said. “And since residents and bus drivers have noticed it too, it’s obviously not just my perception.”

Retorted Dahan: “What about the Guess jeans ads that have graffiti in them, that are sexual? I’ve also seen T-shirts on kids from Orange County that say horrible things on them, but our ads are clean. They’re Puritan by today’s standards.”

Asked why bus passengers should bear the inconvenience of not having a shelter, Vasquez said: “I’m assuming it will not come to that worst-case scenario.”

The transportation agency alone spends almost $1.5 million annually to remove graffiti, Vasquez said.

Alternate OCTA board member Eileen Krause, a council member of Dana Point, also asked Oftelie to investigate whether the bus shelters advertise alcohol and tobacco products. She said her city’s contract for bus shelters bars such ads.

OCTA has been phasing out tobacco ads on the sides of its buses.

Coincidentally, Vasquez and other officials have scheduled a 12:30 p.m. press conference today at the El Modena Community Center in Orange to discuss a task force report aimed at fighting graffiti. Several juveniles identified by officials as graffiti vandals will remove graffiti from the El Modena neighborhood as part of a summer work program.