American textile and fiber makers are talking tougher. They have dumped the celebrities who grinned as they flashed the ``Made in U.S.A.'' labels for the cameras in those old buy-American commercials. In a new round of ads that debut this weekend on NBC's telecast of the Miss America Pageant, they show shoppers making excuses for buying imports while workers cart their belongings outside a plant closing for good. In another commercial, a mother explains to her bewildered young son that they are moving because his father's plant shut down. Why did the plant close, the boy asks. ``Because a lot of people are buying clothes made in other countries, not ours,'' Mom replies. Welcome to the sober new world as seen by the Crafted With Pride in U.S.A. Council, a non-profit organization set up in 1984 to encourage sales of U.S.-made clothes and home furnishings, and its ad agency, Warwick Baker & Fiore. Robert E. Swift, executive director of the council, said the group decided on the new approach in reponse to surveys that indicate consumers are growing more concerned about their reduced standard of living. Imported clothing, for instance, accounts for nearly 60 percent of all clothing sales in the United States, he said. But when Americans are asked about imports, he said they usually cite the car market, where foreigners have captured only a one-third share. Swift said he hopes the ads get American consumers to think about what impact imports are having in apparel and furnishings as well. The council estimates that nearly 500,000 jobs have been lost in the U.S. apparel and textile industries since 1980. Swift said the new ads should make consumers aware that job losses and plant shutdowns not only hurt American workers, but hurt the community tax base and their own standard of living. Swift declined to say how much the council would spend over the next year to run the ads on television. But he said the new campaign will start off with more support than the council has spent in launching any earlier campaign. The celebrity campaign that kicked off the council's ``Made in U.S.A.'' campaign in 1985 was useful in calling attention to the quality and value of American-made products, Swift said. While imports' share of the clothes market rose to 59 percent last year from 47 percent in 1985, he said the pace at which the imports' share was rising has slowed considerably.
