TV & VIDEO - July 26, 1990

Networks Nix Maples Ad: A sportswear manufacturer accused the three major TV networks Wednesday of banning a No Excuses jeans commercial featuring Marla Maples, the “other woman” in the Donald and Ivana Trump marital split. Neil Cole, president of New Retail Concepts, said the networks told him that they would not air his company’s first commercial using Maples as its spokeswoman because of “what they view as unfavorable treatment of a non-competing consumer product, in this case the tabloids.” The commercial shows Maples discarding copies of several gossip weeklies, including the National Enquirer and the Star, into a park trash basket. A spokeswoman for CBS confirmed it banned the commercial because “it is our policy not to present any commercial in which one product sponsor unduly denigrates another product.”