Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1964)

SPONSOR WEEK Pu relator Products: Spot Tv Paid Off Like Slot Machine New York — Reporting record sales for the first six months of 1964, James B. Lightburn, vice president and general sales manager of Purolator Products, Inc., last week declared: "Our tv expenditures will certainly increase in the future. They paid off this year like a slot machine." The filter manufacturing firm upped its spot tv budget in the April-May-June period to $758,300, as opposed to $268,510 the previous year. This put it in the ranks of the top 100 spot tv advertisers for the first time in company history. In revealing a $3 million gain in business for the first six months of 1964 ($33,082,505 compared with $30,170,206 in 1963) Lightburn Average Keystone Station Airs 20 Hours to Farms Chicago — The average Keystone Broadcasting System radio affiliate airs up to 20 hours of shows and editorial features directly to the farmer on a regular basis, according to a KBS study released to advertisers and agencies. In a report on preliminary results of a study of the farm market and its relationship to Keystone's farm network, KBS president Sidney J. Wolf says the range for an affiliate is from one hour of farm programing per week to 84 hours. Of the 1076 reporting on their farm and farm-family shows, 999 carry up to 20 hours a week and 77 broadcast more than 20. Here is a breakdown of the number of hours aired weekly by Keystone stations: NO. OF HOURS BROADCAST STATIONS DIRECTLY TO FARMER REPORTING Under 5 hours per week 578 From 6 to 10 hours 229 From 11 to 20 hours 192 From 21 to 30 hours 58 More than 31 hours 19 noted that automotive manufacturers have spent too much time in loading the distributor and dealer and hoping that sales would take care of themselves. "If we're going to eat more 'pie' in the future," Lightburn said, "it's up to other reputable manufacturers to take the lead and support the service station dealer with all the consumer advertising that can be afforded." He added that every growth industry has eventually been forced to reach the consumer in order to maintain their expanding base of sales. Lightburn attributed a good part of his firm's sales growth to merchandising of television by service station dealers. Purolator made its tv debut in 1963 with a commercial which depicted a girl crawling under a car and removing a dirty filter. It won more tv awards than any other commercial in tv history, the company says. In May of this year, Purolator again won awards with a commercial called the "Doctors." The spot shows two "surgeons" as they extract a dirty oil filter from their "patient"— an automobile — and then give it a clean bill of health by installing a new Purolator oil filter. Total 1076 A scene from Purolator s tv debut Lightburn: "more pie in the future" NAB Code Authority Approves 141 Toy Ads Washington, D. C. — With the number of shopping days until Christmas soon to be a running retail theme and what to buy for the moppets a more and more pressing problem, the NAB's Code Authority has given its stamp of approval to 141 toy commercials to date. NAB points out that all of the commercials of the 26 companies involved were actually checked against samples to insure that the toys and games performed as advertised. It was also noted that many were evaluated from preproduction storyboards and, in many cases, storyboard conferences resulted in changes before the spots were filmed. NAB's toy guidelines, which have the blessing of the top manufacturers of the United States, aim at assisting manufacturers and advertisers in avoiding commercials which misrepresent the performance or price of a toy or game advertised on tv. For example, NAB's news letter points out: "It is verboten to demonstrate a toy in such a manner that it unfairly dramatizes its qualifications. In other words, a toy that fires plastic bullets when equipped with a battery that must be purchased separately cannot be advertised as "a ready-to-use destroyer of Moscow, Peiping and all other capitals of the communist empire." Still another stricture is avoidance of any audio or video techniques which would exaggerate or distort a toy's value. 18 SPONSOR