‘Mexicanz’ Billboard Ads Protested

A letter-writing protest against radio station KPWR-FM 106 for its “2 Fat Mexicanz” advertising campaign appears to have brought results.

The letters ask station manager Doyle Rose to discontinue the campaign, which depicts Mexican American disc jockeys Nick and Eric Vidal (brothers who are known as the Baka Boys) in beach attire, sitting on toilets or walking with surfboards. The ads are on billboards throughout the city.

The East/Northeast Networking Roundtable, a group of community organizations, found the advertising “insulting and demeaning to the Latino community,” wrote Chairman Eddie Farias in his letter to Rose.

“There is already an abundance of negative sentiment directed to the Latino community. Enough is enough! It is your corporate social responsibility to avoid the perpetuation of negative imagery of a people in our culturally diverse society,” the letter said.

“This kind of advertising is really disparaging to the community and we feel they need to be more responsible,” said Reva Trevino, senior consultant for the County Commission on Human Relations and a member of the Roundtable.

Rose blamed the disagreement over the ads on a generation gap, rather than an effort to disparage Latinos, pointing out that the deejays came up with the idea themselves and that the station’s audience, which is 65% Latino, has not been outraged by the billboards.

“Saying that they’re Mexican and fat and they’re proud has become their moniker and in a sense it’s become something that people rally around,” Rose said.

Rose agreed that the toilet scene was in poor taste and replaced those billboards with the Baka Boys with their surfboards. The entire ad campaign will end in about 30 days, he said, adding that future ad campaigns will be more sensitive to the community.

“I’m not about to be offensive to the bread and butter of our station,” he said.

The duo’s show has risen to one of the top five morning shows in Los Angeles, the only morning show that targets young Mexican Americans, he said.

The letter-writing campaign started after a member of the commission on human relations, Eduardo Garcia, spoke to Roundtable members at its Aug. 9 meeting about the advertisements. The Roundtable then agreed to join the protest by writing letters.