Clothing Ads Hit as Glorifying Taggers : Vandalism: Firm is urged to remove posters for Tag Rag clothes from bus shelters in Orange County. But manufacturer says products and their name are not meant to evoke image of vandals.

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

Promising to use the “power of persuasion,” Orange County Transportation Authority chief executive officer Stan Oftelie said Monday he will ask the private company that sells ad space on bus shelters to pull the poster-size advertisements.

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

“It’s inconsistent to spend $1.4 million a year to eliminate graffiti” and permit advertising that promotes the tagger lifestyle, Orange County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez said.

But officials at the Los Angeles-based clothing firm said the fuss is much ado about nothing.

“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 that it borrows from clothing industry slang: tag, as in price tags or manufacturer’s tags, and rag, a term for clothes.

Tag Rag touts its clothing as “inner-city street and thrift store chic.” Designer Michele Dahan called it “the Brady Bunch meets the streets.”

Scott Kraft, president of Tustin-based Bus Shelters of California Inc., the firm that displays the ads, did not return calls Monday.

To illustrate his point, Vasquez, a transportation authority board member who also chairs the county’s graffiti task force, passed around snapshots of a graffiti-marred Garden Grove bus stop.

Vasquez said shelters in Orange, Seal Beach and several other cities also display Tag Rag ads.

“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,” Vasquez said. “And since residents and bus drivers have noticed it too, it’s obviously not just my perception.”

Dahan replied: “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.”