Comcast ads anger taqueria owners

While it may not rise to the level of Fajitagate, a series of local advertisements have some San Francisco taqueria owners crying Burritogate.

You may have noticed the ubiquitous newsrack, bus shelter, and billboard ads for Comcast SportsNet Bay Area proclaiming witticisms such as "I don't know where there's sunshine, but I know where the Warriors are," or "I don't know where the Tendernob is, but I know where the Giants are" (yeah, so do we — on their way to another losing season).

Aaron Farmer

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• Carmen Campos
• San Francisco Giants
• Rico Gerardo
• Mexican Food and Cooking
• Food and Cooking

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More problematically, some of the ads state, "I don't know where a good burrito is, but I know where the A's are" — and at least a couple of these are located close to Mexican restaurants.

"I'm very disappointed," says Rico Gerardo, owner of the Taqueria Cancun chain. "I want to complain. I want to talk to my lawyer." His Sixth and Market restaurant is just a hop, a skip, and a jump from one of the Comcast ads (actually, due to the surplus of human effluvia in this neighborhood, every foot journey is dotted with hops, skips, and jumps). "They should put up that ad where there's no Mexican food," he grouses, "not near a taqueria."

Comcast SportsNet spokesman Jay dela Cruz quickly denied any sort of anti-burrito agenda. He said there are nearly 260 ads scattered throughout the Bay Area — "they're just everywhere" — and there was "no specific plan" to match the ads to the neighborhood.

Yet not every taqueria owner responded with hints at litigation. When informed that a Comcast ad was a mere 50 feet from her restaurant in the Lower Haight — close enough for even Barry Zito to (slowly) toss a ball through the front door — Carmen Campos broke into a big grin. Then the co-owner of Cuco's Mex/Salvadoran Restaurant reared back her head and laughed — for two solid minutes.

Once she settled down, Campos said that if Comcast didn't like her burritos, they should order something else — "The people like the carnitas, the platanos. They are loving that."

And if an ad went up proclaiming "I don't know where the good carnitas or platanos are"?

Campos arches an eyebrow. Now that would be a problem.