A FRESH LOOK FOR THE IVORY SOAP FAMILY AUDITIONS ATTRACT RANGE OF CULTURES.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer

SHERMAN OAKS, Calif. - The last time Procter & Gamble ran generational ads for Ivory soap, family faces were 99 44/100 percent pure white.

No more.

Forty years after the Ohio-based company's ads featured white grandmoms, mothers and kids, it has re-lathered its search for the Ivory soap family.

If multicultural auditions Wednesday in Los Angeles were any indication, the 125-year-old Ivory could be poised for a fresh new look.

``The last African-American family, they specifically asked me, `Do we look like an Ivory family?''' said Alecia Townsend, a spokeswoman for Ivory Soap, who is African-American herself.

``I said yes -- the next generation could be representative of any family.''

Following stops in five U.S. cities, a panel of Ivory Soap judges assembled at the Sherman Oaks Galleria for a daylong search for the perfect Ivory family -- a grandmother, daughter and grandchild under 9.

The ad campaign that originally ran in 1964-66 included magazine spreads of ``real'' Ivory families boasting generations of young-looking skin. The new and improved campaign will be Internet-based.

The Los Angeles winner, to be announced in two weeks, will compete with those from New York, Atlanta, Seattle, Chicago and three mail-in contestants.

Finalists will be flown to New York this fall.

The winning grandmother, mother and child ``who embody the essence of Ivory -- embracing everyday moments and inspiring simple wisdom'' -- will receive a $40,000 scholarship.

In bracing winds under gray skies, contestants posed for pictures and recited a 150-word essay to judges from Ivory Soap, radio station KOST-FM (103.5) and L.A. Parenting magazine.

Grandmothers beamed. Moms smiled. And children flashed ivory-white grins.

Muriel Buono told about how the Ivory soap bar would appear before her daughters -- to ``wash some of those ugly words right out of those little mouths.''

``It worked, let me tell you,'' said Buono, 60, of Arcadia.

Patty McLaughlin told an Ivory tale from Connecticut to California.

``How do I share the unique, classical, simple appeal of Ivory with a daughter growing up in an overmarketed world flooded with too many choices?'' said McLaughlin, of Camarillo.

``Bathie time, that's how.''

Lora Hoshek told of the pure, clean soap that mirrored her pure, clean family.

``I'm purer than pure, an Ivory snow-driven grandmother,'' joked Hoshek, 59, of San Gabriel. ``We're a typical Ivory immigrant family -- pure as our morals, pure as our thoughts.''

Lisa Brown of Porter Ranch told of five generations scrubbed clean by Ivory soap.

``Growing up, I was surrounded by fabulous women going back five generations to my great-great grandmother,'' said Lisa Brown, an African-American contestant flanked by her mother, Diane Newberry of Chatsworth, and 3-year-old daughter, Sasha.

``These women taught me, through rocking-chair stories, histories and experiences, to be a lady, to be independent, strong, nurturing and loving.

``A perfect Ivory family!''

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CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) (CAP2)Lisa Brown of Porter Ranch, left, poses with her daughter, Sasha, 3, and her mother, Diane Newberry of Chatsworth, at the Ivory Family auditions - to be part of the soap company's upcoming online ad campaign - Wednesday at the Sherman Oaks Galleria.

(2) Keegan Wamsley of North Hills sits with mother Meghan and grandmother Patty Fahey of West Los Angeles during their Ivory Family audition Wednesday at Sherman Oaks Galleria. While the old ads were, like the soap, mainly white, the new campaign is attracting a variety of applicants.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer