BAD TASTE HAS POPULAR CULTURE GONE TOO FAR?

Byline: Lisa Mascaro and Brent Hopkins Staff Writer

The apologies came quickly Monday, but the damage had already been done: a bared breast right there on prime-time broadcast TV that left many among the 89.6 million U.S. viewers of Super Bowl XXXVIII gasping at what they saw as the latest, lowest entry in the annals of bad taste.

This year's Monday-morning quarterbacking had much less to do with the New England Patriots' defeat of the Carolina Panthers than with Janet Jackson's raunchy halftime stunt, which was bookended by $2.3 million-per-30-second commercials that included a horse with gas, impotence drugs and lots of sexual innuendoes.

Parent and family groups pounced on the halftime display as ``appalling'' and ``unconscionable.''

Federal Communications Commission chief Michael Powell, who was watching the game with his family, said he was outraged and called for a full investigation.

But TiVo, the digital television service, reported unprecedented replays among home viewers whose sets let them watch and rewatch the image of megastar Janet Jackson having her leather top ripped off by fellow entertainer Justin Timberlake during their duet, part of the halftime debacle.

``Like millions of Americans, my family and I gathered around the television for a celebration,'' Powell told the Associated Press. ``Instead, that celebration was tainted by a classless, crass and deplorable stunt.

``Our nation's children, parents and citizens deserve better.''

CBS and MTV, the network which aired the game and the cable network which produced the halftime show, both issued apologies, while NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue released a statement saying the league was ``extremely disappointed'' by a show that was ``offensive, inappropriate and embarrassing to us and our fans.'' Tagliabue pledged new procedures for managing the show in the future.

Timberlake later apologized, and Jackson herself issued a statement late Monday admitting the ``costume reveal'' at the end of her song was a last-minute stunt that went awry.

But for many, the combination of the MTV-produced halftime show that left little to the imagination and the toilet-humor ads was a far cry from the Mickey Mouse-themed halftime shows of days past, and lowered the bar of bad taste even more than could be thought possible.

Plus, the display comes after some recent head-turning behavior that already made pop culture history.

There was the spectacle of the Madonna-Britney kiss during the MTV Video Music Awards show just last fall, and the casual profanities spewed by Lakers star Shaquille O'Neal that went out unbleeped during a televised interview Sunday night - remarks for which he apologized on Monday.

Add to that CBS' promos for that granddaddy of low-brow reality TV - a new ``Survivor'' show that followed the Super Bowl - and some viewers had had enough.

Bob Garfield, who spends his days reviewing commercials as Advertising Age's ad critic, blamed this year's more vulgar spots on declining cultural standards, a common sentiment among those who follow the industry.

``Along with many other people, I'm disgusted to see how vulgarity has become considered good form,'' Garfield said.

``It's not just the Super Bowl; it's the culture,'' Garfield said.

``The quality of our humor has been so degraded, the only way to get laughs is to show exploding horse farts,'' he said about the Bud Light spot.

``It's not that I have some moralistic, prudish disgust about explosive horse farts. I just don't think it's an attractive gag. Television is just filled with explosive horse fart gags, and the culture is the poorer for it.''

But USC Professor Todd Boyd said society shouldn't be so surprised about Super Bowl content in a sport that's all about celebrating the ``two- fisted masculinity'' of men.

``Consider the source: We're talking about the Super Bowl; we're not talking about Easter Sunday Mass,'' said Boyd, who focuses on pop culture as a professor of critical studies at the University of Southern California.

``That element is there - the sophomoric nature of some of the commercials, the sexual objectification of women's bodies, this sort of bacchanalian sense of celebration. That's all part of the way people participate in celebration of football,'' he said.

``I think it would be hypocritical if people were treating this as very formal and officious and dignified. It's not. People all over the country, they gather and they eat and they drink and they have a big party.''

He said we've long touted cheerleaders in their short-short-skirts and revealing tops, so, ``How far is it to go from that to Janet Jackson's exposed breast? That's not a long journey.''

But Slate.com columnist Mickey Kaus said the dads with whom he was watching the game registered a collective, quiet gasp when the shirt- ripping scene passed before their youngsters' eyes: They hoped, unsuccessfully, the kids didn't notice.

It was the violence, not the nudity, that was most offensive, Kaus said, adding there should be firings of those top executives responsible.

``At some point, you keep pushing the boundaries, (and) you arrive at a very bad place,'' he said.

``I'm for an orgy of recrimination,'' he said. ``It told teenage boys all over America it's cool to rip the clothes off women. To have Justin Timberlake do it ... it just sort of gave official ratification to an ugly attitude that's prevalent but usually suppressed.''

Pointing to the broader impact around the world, Kaus said the spectacle gives a bad image of the U.S. - particularly to conservative Muslims already upset at lax Western morality.

``It was bad enough when we said, to accept American culture, you have to accept Britney Spears,'' he said. ``It's worse to say ... you have to accept disrespect of women and complete lack of (control of) ugly male impulses.''

Advertisers must walk a fine line, balancing edginess and sobriety, said Mike Sheldon, managing partner of Deutsch Los Angeles, which created the Mitsubishi ``Galant Freeway'' ad that aired during the Super Bowl.

``You have to know where the line is, so you can capture the imagination of the consuming public. You've got to entertain them at the same time you educate them, give them a little cake with their spinach,'' he said.

``I can't tell you how many people in our industry and others are talking about this, probably 10 times more than they do about the game.''

Still, even the Janet Jackson thing was too much for him.

``People are a little more puritan than what TV leads you to believe,'' Sheldon said. ``All the salacious garbage on TV is a result of the networks mailing it in and searching for the lowest common denominator. Consumers will eventually backlash against it.''

But Gary Ruskin, executive director of the advertising watchdog Commercial Alert, doubts the race to the bottom will end any time soon.

``It's certainly possible for it to get more shocking, and you can bet it will next year,'' Ruskin said. ``This is the arc of advertising: They've got to do the new shocking, new crass, new alarming thing in order to get coverage.''

Lisa Mascaro, [phone]

lisa.mascaro(at)dailynews.com

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4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 4 -- color) On Sunday, Anheuser-Busch's low-brow Super Bowl ads featured blazing horse flatulence, top, and a pet chimp hitting on his owner's girl, below; while the halftime show displayed the bare breast of Janet Jackson, right; and the debut of ``Survivor: All-Stars'' was marred by the sight of contestant Richard Hatch, above, naked.