The Cine Technician (1953-1956)

44 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN March-April, 1953 10 per cent of the time, or one minute in every ten. British observers with widely differing points of view on most matters tend to concur on the objectionable results. Mr. Beverley Baxter (Conservative M.P.), who spends a good deal of time in America, made the following observations in the House of Commons (1st June, 1952): " To sit over there through a three or fourhour sponsored television programme is to come under a terrorisation of the mass suggestion of advertising. The American girl, for example, is supposed to be the finest of her kind in the world. She is supposed to be the quintessence of feminine charm. What do advertisers say about her on the radio, on the television ? I shall put it as gently as I can. She suffers from dandruff, from body odour, from halitosis. I could go on." Mr. Joseph Reeves (Labour M.P. ), member of the 1949 Broadcasting Committee under Lord Beveridge, said in his evidence to that Committee after a visit to investigate American broadcasting: " I visited the main television studio (in Cleveland) W.E.W.S. Only 5 to 10 per cent of the programme time was initiated by the station, and even of this amount, news was included which was interspersed with advertising items. A news programme of twenty minutes was broken off five times, so that advertisers' copy could be used. Each item of news was cleverly linked with advertising copy by subtle continuity." And again: " Television programmes do not compare with ours. They are positively ruined by obtrusive and objectionable advertising matter. I viewed a dramatic performance in which Gertrude Lawrence, the English actress, appeared in ' Biography.' It was provided by the Prudential Insurance Company of America. There was an advertising announcement at the beginning of the play and special intervals were arranged so that throughout the play notices of the insurance services of the Prudential could be made known. During the play, this was done by a speaker who appeared on the screen with his sales promotion talk." A letter published in the Manchester Guardian from an Englishman in America (18th July, 1952) makes the following points: " Sponsored radio and television assume the magnitude of a plague which pursues you with raucous injunction to spend your money on a bewildering array of various commercial products. A trio recently who started singing ' You'll take the high road and I'll take the low road ' in a Brooklyn-Scottish accent . . . ended with the line that they would be in Scotland before me because they used a particular brand of motor oil." Lord Samuel, speaking of his experiences of television in America (22nd May, 1952) said: " On one occasion I turned on the programme and heard the last question and answer of an interview with someone who had come from Britain to America on behalf of the Travel Association. The last question was very hurriedly given: ' Sir Alexander, what do you think Of Anglo-American relations? ' The reply was: ' I think it very important that the two countries should be on good terms,' to which the interviewer said: ' And so do I, and I hope when you travel about in America you will remembei to recommend to your friends our brand of cigarettes.' Then on the screen one saw held up a packet of cigarettes, which grew larger and larger until it filled the whole screen." Advertising on television differs from that in newspapers; the reader can avoid looking at these in the latter; in the former he cannot. It is sometimes claimed that American listeners are " immune" to advertising on the radio; they are so used to it that they automatically close their ears to it. It is much more difficult to do this, however, on television; Lord Brand made this point in the House of Lords debate (26th May, 1952): " When I read The Times, I do not know what advertisements are there, because I never look at them. But as an American friend of mine said to me only yesterday. ' If you are to have sponsored advertisements, you could only compare it to an advertiser coming and taking your Times away from you as you were reading it and saying to you " You have to listen to me for three minutes before you can read the leader." And only when you have heard what he has to say can you return to the leader again.' " In any case, in many of the programmes — particularly children's programmes — the advertising is woven right into the show. Mrs. M. Stocks, member of the Beveridge Committee, reported to that body: " N.B.C. runs a programme comparable to ' Muffin the Mule,' featuring a marionette called ' Howdy-doody,' played to a studio audience of some forty children of all ages from about four years upwards assembled by invitation. These become part of the show. The cameras are turned on them from time to time, they engage in question and answer and are taught to sing rhymes in praise of Kellogg's Wheat Flakes and Colgate's Dental Cream. I do not know how the law stands in the U.S.A. with regard to the employment of children in stage shows. These children were certainly being used for profit — but presumably unpaid except for the distribution of ' Howdy-doody ' picture books after the show. There is not much to be said for some of the B.B.C. children's programmes, but I saw nothing in New York to touch our ' Muffin ' series." There are also " give away " programmes on American radio and television in which listeners or viewers are bribed to hear and look at advertisements in the hope that if rung up on the telephone while watching they may win a large money prize. (3) The debased level of sponsored television programmes. The greatest condemnation of American commercial sponsored television is not the intrusion of advertising material, objectionable though this can be, but the debasement of the quality of the programmes offered. This appears to arise from two contributory and interlocking reasons: (1) The advertising agencies which organise most of the programmes and are responsible for recruiting most of the talent are not concerned with the cultural or educational possibility of television, but solely concerned with getting the largest possible audience. This, in their minds, means appealing to the " lowest common denominator." (2) Television is extremely costly — therefore, even the " popular " shows must be run at the lowest possible cost that will still attract a large audience. Initially, those in charge of American television aimed to televise national sporting events, etc.. they were often prevented