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Seeing is believing! Presto works like magic.
casts were titled: Hobby Hall of Fame. As the name denotes, hobbyists were invited to show their hobbies, and the product demonstration was held about half way through the program.
IT TAKES IMAGINATION
Now, came the test of whether or not we could introduce these commercials in such a way as to gain greatest appeal and interest from our television audience. Out of this search came the idea of having a puppet as our announcer. And so Presto, our puppet magician was born. Very videogenic he was too, garbed as a*^ Indian fakir, complete with turban, beard and wand. Twenty-two inches high. Presto was clothed in several tones of gray, a color which photographs well through the iconoscope.
ENTERTAINMENT COMMERCIALS
jiNCE the slogan of our client proclaimed that the mending tape "works like magic/' our puppet was a natural for these programs. He jigged, performed magic, flew through the air and did innumerable tricks, apparently on his own power, but actually controlled through
strings behind a s[X'(:ially built stage which made the operator invisible to the televiewers. In( ideiilally, the task ol manipulating the puppet and reading the scripts, supposedly spoken by Presto, was a difficult one, and Austin Huhn, who created Presto and performed this feat described it as comparable to writing with both hands at once.
There is no doubt that the creation of the puppet was an inspired one, and j^oints the way to the use of marionettes and other trick props as eye-catchers in television. To our knowledge, Presto was the first puppet specifically planned and used for television.
POSSIBILITIES ARE EXCITING
/iNoiHKR program which our agency handled, was sponsored by a neckwear account, and liere we made use of an original twist in demonstrating neckties. For this program, called Interesting People, a special neckwear cotmter was constructed, and a singing "tie girl" kibitzed with the announcer as he held up the ties featured on the program, and extolled their good points. This served as a lead-in for some songs by the "tie girl." During the course of these telecasts, each performer, gathered from the screen, theatre, radio and similar fields, was presented with a tie. This created another opportunity for a plug, and quite painlessly, too, since an audience is always interested in seeing something being given away.
A REAL CHALLENGE
Uf course, each product will have its own special problems of demonstration over television. But it should be a challenge to the agency and the various men in the display field, to call upon their best resources and imagination to produce interesting and sprightly commercials. In fact, because of its visual advantages, television can extend the value of a commercial beyond anything dreamed of in radio. Since the demonstration of the product is an actuality with television, as opposed to radio, the commercial need no longer be simply a sales talk, but can be educational as well.
MARCH , 1946
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