Wrong Message? : Smoking: As part of the Great American Smokeout on Thursday, the American Cancer Society’s posters take a no-holds-barred approach to steering schoolchildren away from cigarettes. But some O.C. educators are concerned that the posters are too blunt.

Fearing that Joe Camel is gaining in the battle for the hearts and lungs of America’s youth, the American Cancer Society is adding new bite to its California school anti-smoking campaign this year.

As part of its annual Great American Smokeout on Thursday, the society’s posters aim directly at those in their early and middle teens, declaring “Butts Are Gross” and demanding “Get Your Butt Out of My Face.”

The cancer society estimates that 3,000 American children start smoking every day. In a memo to to its local chapters, state headquarters said the time has come “to go head-to-head with the tobacco industry’s multibillion-dollar advertising campaigns.”

While conceding that some adults may not like the blunt posters--Orange County, for example, is not distributing the one titled “Butts Are Gross” except upon request--the state society says the posters are effective with kids.

“We’re just trying to speak their language,” a spokesman said.

“Butts Are Gross” shows a cigarette butt together with 11 portraits of different animals, all photographed directly from behind.

Another poster shows a woman’s face, a cigarette in her mouth, and is captioned “Get Your Butt Out of My Face.”

A third, called “Sophisticated Lady,” shows what is probably an attractive woman, but you can’t tell for the repulsive crust of tar over her face, shoulders and hair. The message: “If what happened on your inside happened on your outside, would you still smoke?”

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Strong stuff for the schoolroom bulletin board, but is it too strong?

No, say society officials, not if you ask the kids. Showing the posters to groups of students has shown they get the point and like the posters, said Justin Rogers, public relations spokesman for the society’s state headquarters.

Polling 687 students in Orange County, for example, showed that regardless of grade level, the students got the anti-smoking, anti-glamour message of the posters, said Margaret Edwards, spokeswoman for the Orange County society.

But some educators have objected. The society headquarters has urged local chapters to test the waters early, because its own polling brought mixed reviews.

Some educators were wary about “whether the materials were appropriate for use in the schools. They were concerned that students (especially in grades 4 to 6) might use the term ‘Butts’ as an excuse for disrespectful jokes and behavior toward others,” headquarters warned.

That was the reaction Orange County society officials got when they showed the posters to three local teachers before deciding not to distribute “Butts Are Gross.”

One of the teachers was Ruth Hatch, a kindergarten teacher at James A. Garfield Elementary School near downtown Santa Ana.

“Children get the wrong ideas so easily,” Hatch said. “It becomes an object of humor rather than a lesson. Smoking is not funny. The one I saw that said, ‘Get get your butt out of my face,’ I wouldn’t use that in school. As teachers, we have to promote the social model. We don’t call anybody a butt-head. Children need to be treated with respect.”

Another was Judye Haider, a program coordinator at Palmyra Elementary School in Orange.

“The one with the woman with tar, I really like it and I’ve distributed it,” Haider said. “The ‘Butts Are Gross,’ I and a lot of us thought it wasn’t appropriate for the elementary level. Littler kids wouldn’t take it right, but I think it’s real effective at a different level.”

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Although private agencies and companies are ordering the “Butts Are Gross” poster “by the hundreds,” the Orange County cancer society will distribute it to schools by request only, Edwards said.

By contrast, the Los Angeles Unified School District has ordered 6,000 of the posters along with 24,500 of “Out of My Face.”

“I knew they were going to be controversial based on reactions in my office,” said Barbara Dietsch, who coordinates anti-smoking education for the Los Angeles district.

“But the teachers love them. These are experienced health teachers. In the last couple of years, they’ve become aware they’re competing with MTV and other audiovisual media the kids are exposed to. Sometimes it takes a ‘Butts Are Gross’ poster to get their attention.”

That was the conclusion of the Minnesota Department of Public Health when it commissioned an advertising campaign aimed at 12- to 14-year-olds back in 1990. That age group was important, the department decided, because studies had shown that most smokers started smoking at that age.

“Kids that age do not see themselves as middle-aged adults who get things like cancer and heart disease,” said Buddy Ferguson, the health department’s spokesman. “We decided the best way was to use humor and impart a notion that smoking is socially unacceptable. That carries a lot more weight with that age group.”

The department’s advertising agency, Martin Willams Advertising in Minneapolis, decided to attack smoking as “cool” without directly attacking smokers. In a TV commercial and then a poster, various animals were shown smoking. The message: If you think this is silly, imagine yourself doing it.

The campaign was such a local success--surveys showed nearly 90% recognition among school-age children--that the health department asked for a sequel. Martin Willams took the obvious turn: Use the other end of the animals. The resulting “Butts Are Gross” TV commercial and poster were even more popular and won several advertising awards.

Lyle Wedemeyer, the agency’s creative director and writer for the project, said he spent hours watching his teen-age niece and nephew. He concluded that “you really have to suspend a lot of common beliefs about advertising. Normally we’re working on very sophisticated messages and trying to find a subtle approach. Here we just kind of hit them right over the head. We didn’t expect it to be as successful as it was. I think it just hits people between the eyes.”

About 100,000 of the posters were printed for use in Minnesota, and tens of thousands have been reprinted for out-of-state agencies and corporations, said Judith Hilton, the department’s health educator. Because of the out-of-state demand for the poster--and health department budget cuts--the Minnesota Legislature has authorized the department to market its anti-smoking materials.

The California American Cancer Society has been an eager customer. Together with the “Sophisticated Lady” poster, which was produced by the national society three years ago, and the “Out of My Face” poster, created this year by the California society, the Minnesota poster has been in high demand, requiring reprints within three months of initial availability, Rogers said.

“If our target audience is understanding the message, we’re doing our job,” he said. “If some people are uncomfortable with the posters, we acknowledge that and are concerned. But if it works, we should use it, absolutely. Some materials may be more hard-hitting than what folks are used to seeing in the past, but we’re very comfortable reaching people we are trying to reach.”

If Orange County officials have decided to tread easily with the Minnesota poster, they are going all out elsewhere.

On Tuesday, the society arranged for students of MacArthur Fundamental Intermediate School in Santa Ana to take over the Old County Courthouse and stage a mock trial of Mr. Butts, the Doonesbury cartoon character who represents the tobacco industry. Called as witnesses will be Joe Camel, advertising symbol for Camel cigarettes, and Santa Claus, the noted pipe smoker.

Santa Claus has been visiting schools in Santa Ana, telling children he is quitting smoking and urging them not to start, Edwards said. On Thursday, the day of the smokeout, Claus is scheduled to read his no-smoking proclamation at the Old County Courthouse, she said.