Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1963)

ADVERTISERS better. In 1957 Schick, Inc. sued Spcrry-Rand Corp. and its Remington-Rand division for $5 million in damages, alleging that the competing women's electric shaver disparaged in a Remington commercial was a Schick shaver or a model "exactly similar thereto." Claims on blades have always been along the lines of more, cleaner, closer shaves. With the new competition on stainless steel blades, however, claims will have to be written carefully. The word is out that the stainless steel, and the cutting for the blades, is done almost exclusively by two manufacturers in Sweden ( Time, 20 Sept. ) The blades are only "stamped and sharpened" by the different companies. American Airlines recently dug into its biggest competitors. United and TVVA, by using a commercial to clearly point out its superiority in numbers of fan jets. In an obvious rebuke. United put out a commercial stating that for many months their airline has been the leader in on -time performance, indicating that even though American has more fan jets, they do not keep as good a flight schedule. Cigarette commercials were strongly competitive several years ago, industry men claim. But with the health pressure on cigarettes claims are now smooth and mild, but packed with very little punch. As an FTC spokesman put it, "Cigarette ads have been reduced to nothing but pretty girls, waterfalls, and attractive hound dogs." Other areas where fiery product vs. product claims are now made on tv: toothpaste, detergents, hair preparations, skin creams, deodorants. The order of review or passage of an allegedly false or misleading commercial is not always the same. Often if an advertiser or agency knows it is treading on dangerous ground it will contact the NAB or the FTC for advice. If not, the networks and stations are the decisionmakers. The NAB tries to act more as a preventative organization. If the advertiser does not comply with the suggestions for change which the NAB makes it can do little more SUBTLE DIGS BY THE ADVER-SARIES ORAL ANTISEPTICS HAIR PRODUCTS MICRIN . . . Micrin has more germ fighting power than any other mouthwash. Why? Because Micrin kills germs by the millions. No other mouthwash kills more. And Micrin holds back the return of new germs hours longer. Longer than any other mouthwash. DRUGS EXCEDRIN . . . Even the heavily advertised combination-of-ingredients tablet merely adds caffeine to aspirin. But Excedrin has more quantity and more kinds of ingredients . . . Tablet for tablet, Excedrin is 50% stronger than aspirin for relief of headache pain. DRISTAN . . . When a cold hurts you can't think clear. Try aspirin, does it still hurt? All-Day capsules, still hurt? Only today's Dristan has this exact formula with the one decongestant most prescribed by doctors. ALBERTO VO-5 . . . When ordinary sprays dr>they're film looking. They dull your hair. But new VO-S hair spray is crystal clear. COMMAND First came alcohol hair tonics. They dry hair. It pops up. Then came cream. They dry out, hair pops up. Now, the first hair groom advance in 16 years, new Command with natural oils. TOOTHPASTES PEPSODENT . . . All leading fluoride toothpastes lose active fluoride right in the tube. New Pepsodcnt Fluoride delivers more of what you buy a fluoride for . . . preferred by dentists two to one. IPANA . . . It's the one that kills decay germs best of the leading brands in the laboratory test. It prevents bad breath the whole day through. Even beats the best-known mouthwash too. than send out the name of the offender to members in its monthly newsletter and state that the advertiser has not altered the commercial so it is acceptable. The chances are the station would comply with the request, but it is still only a re(luest, the final decision coming from the stations themselves. The same would be true if a network did not approve of a commercial, however, except in the case of o&o's which are more closely controlled. .\t the NAB convention last spring former FCC chairman Newton Minow, urged a law requiring every broadcaster to belong to the N.'^B and that the NAB be given authority to enforce its owti standards for commercial announcements. Minow said the present NAB Code represents the thinking of responsible broadcasters about advertising practices, but "it is not complied with and is not adequately enforced." Stockton Helffrich, manager of the New York NAB Code Office, noted that competition is a great deal stiffer now than it used to be. In the beginning the office was opened to maintain image and good taste, but now "we don't do anything else but claims," he says. According to Helffrich a claim on tv can be unacceptable because it is not valid, the commercial is misleading, or presentation is in poor taste. He mentioned that an advertiser might try to stress more of a certain ingredient or added use that ma>' not be significant at all. "If an advertiser claims you can hit ping pong balls with a product, it may be true, but what difference would it make," he says. Concentration is on the drug claims, according to the manager. Problems in the area of detergents, for example, are important, but compared to the seriousness of an erroneous statement in the drug or medicine area, it would be relati\ely unimportant. If the NAB hears about a misleading or false commercial from competitors, station, network, or agency it immediately calls the agenc> handling the cop\-, asks to see substantiation, and offers possibilities for acceptable cop\ or graphic material. Helffrich referred to himself and staff as "trouble shooters." The name of the party (luestioning the commercial is al 32 SPONSOR/7 OCTOBER 1963 i