LOCATING `WHERE IT'S AT' : AD EXECUTIVES SEEKING TO CASH IN ON WHAT'S COOL SHOULD TAKE THEIR TIPS FROM ETHNIC CULTURE THAT HAS BEEN SETTING THE TRENDS FOR MIDDLE AMERICA.

Byline: Yvette C. Doss

GROUCHO Marx once said that he wouldn't belong to any club that would have him as a member. In that one pithy proclamation, he captured the essence of cool. It's something advertisers have been scrambling to do for some time now with their overuse of sloppy fonts and belly-button-pierced models.

Take the latest Microsoft Corp. ad campaign to make the universe of Bill Gates - geek extraordinaire - cool. Or the newest Intel ad banner popping up on World Wide Web sites everywhere. It features a cheeky red-headed teen surprising dad with her nose ring.

But those guys got it all wrong. If advertisers really want to present an image so cool young consumers will flock to buy their products, they should take a cue from Groucho Marx. Middle American teens and twentysomethings don't want to buy products pitched by suburban kids who look just like them. They want to buy products pitched by the real urban trend-setters they seek to emulate: the Latino and African-American kids who are busy forging the street culture that so much popular culture derives from. If advertisers started using more ethnic models and actors, instead of trying to capitalize on the ``whatever'' attitude of the mythic Generation X set, they could actually attract more consumers - of the white variety and of every other color, too.

It's a simple enough concept. With all the money corporate America spends on market research and taste tests, you'd think the CEOs would have figured it out by now. But maybe this kind of myopia is just part and parcel of the coolness biz: If they're on to it, it's just not cool any more.

Mr. Advertising Executive would do well to visit the local mall and follow a young shopper around. If he's savvy enough, he just might notice that the CD the kid picked up at the Warehouse is by Rage Against the Machine (front man Zack De La Rocha is Mexican-American), Cypress Hill (Cuban, African-American and Mexican-American hip hoppers) or Snoop Doggy Dogg (African-American gangsta-turned-G-funkster). And the jeans the kid toted home were of the wide-leg variety, a style that made its way into the American fashion landscape through the baggy stylings of the African-American hip hopper, who in turn borrowed it from the East L.A. Mexican-American ``cholo.''

So if Middle American teens are looking to the country's ethnic minorities for the inside scoop on ``where it's at,'' Mr. Ad Exec should use actors and models in his ad campaigns that feature those who made the products and music cool in the first place, namely young Latinos and African-Americans.

My bet is corporate America would make a killing. And besides, using ethnic models and actors would do more than provide a little authenticity to the borrowed urban culture of commercial America. It could also allow advertisers to finally present a more complete picture of America in the pages of our magazines and on our television screens.

With the advertisers heading in that direction, a domino effect could take place. It wouldn't be long before television executives decided to start featuring a more diverse palette of actors in their shows because, after all, one main reason they haven't done so already is their fear that the advertisers won't like it.

Ethnic America wins, and corporate America wins, too.

Plus, with a purchasing power of over $250 billion for Latino consumers and over $300 billion for African-American consumers, any company that can win those groups over by showcasing minority spokespeople in their TV, print and even on-line ads would be tapping into a lucrative source of revenue, especially since over the next 15 years, the aggregate purchasing power of Hispanics alone is expected to triple to an estimated $965 billion. That's a lot of money in the pockets of young brown kids itching to see themselves on TV commercials and billboards.

Hip or not, that is exactly where it's at.

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PHOTO Finding it: Advertising executives would be smart to take notice of musical groups like Rage Against the Machine and other trendsetters.