Today’s Topic

Who would have predicted 40 years ago, when television was first coming into American homes, that such mundane products as deodorant and breakfast cereal would one day be touted before a national audience by bare-chested men and women in skimpy bathing suits?

Of course, these days such commercials rarely raise eyebrows and are among the surest sign of the changes in our standards of acceptable behavior. But, are they in good taste? And what exactly is good taste when it comes to advertising?

“What is one person’s terrible taste is another person’s turn on,” says Joel Hochberg, general manager of the Foote Cone & Belding advertising agency in Los Angeles. “What you would do to sell something to somebody older is different than what you would do to sell something to a teen-ager.

“Unfortunately, sometimes there are lapses,” Hochberg adds. “If you go too far with certain products, you are going to turn off your audience.”

To some people, in particular Mexican Americans, a recent series of billboards for a radio station went too far. The billboards display two young Mexican American disc jockeys, “The Baka Boyz,” sitting on toilets with their pants around their ankles or in other naked situations.

In today’s Gripe, Mario Garcia of Canoga Park argues that the billboards are not just in poor taste but offensive to an entire community. Yet Nick Vidal, the younger of the two brothers who make up “The Baka Boyz” team, believes that the ads are simply appealing to a very specific segment of the population.

“We are sorry the billboard offended anyone,” says Vidal, who created the ads with his brother Eric. “But, we did it because it was fun. I am basically my audience and I’m sure our audience would think (the billboards) were fun as well.”

While Vidal is no marketing expert, he echoes what many of the experts say. “We’re in a transition period where we’re moving toward attempts to communicate with smaller audiences,” says David Stewart, a USC marketing professor.

“Yet the media doesn’t isolate,” adds Stewart, who is also a consumer psychologist. “I might be exposed to something that is in bad taste for me but wasn’t meant to be. You get leakage into audiences for which the message is not really intended.”

As a result of that potential leakage, some experts argue that advertisers must act responsibly to a larger community when hawking their products, especially when minority audiences are involved.

“There is a myopia here that hurts the entire culture,” says Anita Santiago, president of Anita Santiago Advertising Inc. in Santa Monica. “When you’re young, you want to shock people. We all went through that phase. But you’ve got to be smart enough to see it’s going to affect an entire culture, especially one that’s being picked on.

“I think it’s vital to present a positive image of ethnic groups,” adds Santiago, whose agency specializes in developing advertising for the Latino community. “Taste is very hard to define. I think it’s a combination of common sense and respect and just understanding.”