‘Jaws’ Ads at Beach Inspire Unintended Fears

Howard Bennett said a recent walk to the Playa del Rey beach with his granddaughter turned traumatic when the 3-year-old spotted posters on trash cans “as far as the eye could see” of a great white shark baring its razor-sharp teeth.

“I’ve lived 40 years on the beach and I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Bennett, whose home is nearby. “She took one look at the cans and she became hysterical.”

The marketing folks at Universal Studios Home Video say the posters that decorate trash cans and lifeguard stands on area beaches are a good-natured stunt to advertise the 25th anniversary and a new video and DVD release of the movie “Jaws.”

But the stunt may have a shorter life than the unfortunate swimmer who meets the shark at the start of the Steven Spielberg film.

Some Southern California tourists and beach-area homeowners say the posters of the shark attack movie are inappropriate for children about to take a dip in the surf and confusing to non-English speakers who interpret the ad as a warning about hungry sea life.

Lifeguards say they’ve been fielding complaints and offering reassurance to beachgoers since the ads started appearing on Los Angeles County’s 27-mile stretch of beaches on June 19.

Now Kerry Gottlieb, chief deputy of the Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors, who approved the ad to run on 400 trash cans and dozens of lifeguard stands through July 31, said she’s “exploring the possibility” of removing the ads early.

“Maybe we should have realized that everybody isn’t familiar with the movie,” she said. “In my mind, it was fiction. It certainly didn’t enter my mind that it would put fear in people. I would never want that to happen.”

Ken Graffeo, senior vice president for marketing for Universal Studios Home Video, said that placing the posters on the beach was a small part of a national campaign.

“All we were looking for was where could we reach the greatest number of eyeballs. That’s what our goal was. We were trying to think outside the box,” he said.

Graffeo said Universal would support the county pulling the ads if “we see there’s significant negative response.” Until more complaints are heard, he said, “we’ll continue to monitor the situation.”

The county is estimated to earn about $400,000 this fiscal year from the sale of all sorts of advertising on the trash cans and on safety signs on lifeguard stands. That money is used to maintain the beaches, Gottlieb said.

Los Angeles County Fire Department Lifeguard Operation Capt. Robert Moore said the posters have prompted plenty of questions from tourists.

“It always starts a conversation,” Moore said. “Then we have to explain that we have had no known shark attacks in the Santa Monica Bay. . . . It’s a good advertising ploy.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Maryland resident and elementary school tutor Suzy Smuckler shook her head at the poster on lifeguard tower No. 17 at Santa Monica State Beach.

The ad was displayed above an official warning to swimmers to “Swim Near a Lifeguard.”

“Kids have enough things to be afraid of,” she said. “For them, I think, the ocean [already] is huge and intimidating and scary.”

Australian tourist John Haigh, who strolled along the beach with his wife Diane and their three children, said the poster was in bad taste.

“It’ll scare people off the beaches,” he said. “That’s like having [posters of the film] ‘Airport ‘75’ at the airport.”

Los Angeles County waters are home to several species of shark, officials said. But Santa Monica-based county lifeguard Capt. Mickey Gallagher said he could recall no shark attack in his more than 20 years on the job. Swimmers need to be more concerned about avoiding injuries from jellyfish and stingrays, he said.

The ad campaign isn’t the first time the county Department of Beaches and Harbors has been accused of poor taste.

A few years ago, a poster for the Los Angeles Kings hockey team showed a scorecard comparing the number of pucks the team’s goalie had “saved” from entering the goal to the number of lives saved by the Los Angeles County lifeguards. In the ad, the Kings had earned 5,000 saves, while the lifeguards merited just 11.

Not everyone was offended by the shark ads.

Vacationing El Paso resident Elizabeth Garcia, who was sunbathing on a beach towel in Santa Monica next to a lifeguard tower with one of the ads, said she thought it was good-natured.

“I think they did it to be funny,” she said. “And I thought it was funny.”