Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1963)

COMMERCIAL PREVIEW: Princess Dial on the desert Last week's heat wave in Los Angeles was just a pleasant, cool memory to executives of Armour & Co., Foote, Cone & Belding (both Chicago) and Filmfair Inc. (Hollywood), who went on location to shoot parts of a Princess Dial soap commercial. The "safari'* traveled onto the Mojave Desert where temperatures ranged up to 118 degrees. Two truckloads of equipment (left) were hauled 170 miles from Los Angeles to the shadeless desert for shooting that emphasized the drying forces of sun, wind and heat. And, since no breeze was stirring a fan was played on model Pat White for part of the sequence (right). The commercial will be used later this month on 11 daytime shows on ABC-TV in Armour's schedule. Loevinger undecided on commercial rules REGIONAL RAB MEETINGS HEAR AGENCY SPEAKERS, TOO FCC Commissioner Lee Loevinger at the RAB management conference in Palo Alto Oct. 3 indicated to broadcasters that he hasn't yet made up his mind on the proposed rulemaking on commercial time limitations and said that published reports to the effect he's lined up with Chairman E. William Henry in favor of the proposed rulemaking were incorrect. He also said it was his opinion that any eventual rule adoption would at the very least differ from NAB code provisions and might be "substantially different." Commissioner Loevinger said that he had a background in survey work, having obtained a degree in the field before he turned to law, and that long before revelations were made before the Harris subcommittee he had been "outraged over the years by the kind of nonsense being peddled by Nielsen." He said: "Nielsen comes in and gives a very pious defense in which he quotes recognized principles of research. The trouble is that the principles have nothing to do with the type of activity which this company happens to be engaged in. It's like a bank robber quoting the Ten Commandments." New 'Magic' Needed ■ Walter Guild, president of Guild, Bascom & Bonfigli, San Francisco agency, told the conference that radio must find new "magic" if it is going to continue to be influential as an advertising force. He said radio should hire the "best research brains" to determine: 1. What elements of entertainment, communication and persuasion radio possesses that are unique to that medium. 2. How best these magic powers can be used. "What a wonderful position radio would occupy if it had such information about itself," he said. Such a psychoanalysis of radio would not be too difficult, he felt. At the RAB meeting in Chicago last week the story of how Wade Advertising, Chicago, decided to become a radio sponsor itself was told by the agency's president, Hal H. Thurber. Wade sponsors an evening market news summary each weekday on WBBM Chicago called Business Day. Mr. Thurber said that the agency in the past few years has increased its billings from about $11.5 million to a present total of $28.5 million. He told the RAB group that "most of that increase has come through the growth of our clients, and most of that growth has been due to the electronic media, television and radio." Wade spends more than half of its billings in broadcast, he noted. Sold on Broadcast ■ "So we started out practicing what we preached by deciding that there might be a way for us to publicize ourselves on the air," he recalled. Thus, last year Wade sponsored a weekly program on wgn-tv Chicago, Mid-America Marketing on the March, and this fall chose its radio series. The TV show featured as guests the top executives of a broad range of midwest companies. There are no commercials other than sponsor identification. Mr. Thurber said that Wade's experience with the "soft sell" approach has paid off: the agency recently won Falstaff Brewing Corp.'s Pacific division account. Don't underrate soft sell, Mr. Thurber told the RAB meeting. "Making friends is the first step in making a sale," he said, "and you don't make friends by shouting at people." Also appearing before the RAB 40 (BROADCAST ADVERTISING) BROADCASTING, October 7, 1963