Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1964)

PROBING THE CURRENTS AND UNDERCURRENTS OF BROADCAST ADVERTISING P&G's piggyback dispute The web of piggyback controversy has caught up with P&G, and very much to the Cincinnati giant's puzzlement. It can't understand why any station would reject its commercial — which devotes 40 seconds to plugging Crest and another 20 seconds offering a premium — on piggyback grounds. The stations that have refused to take this commercial on a spot schedule advance this point of view: the premium, a Smokey the Bear doll, calls for not only cartons but cash, and the cash consideration puts the offer in direct competition and on the same level with toy people who advertise dolls. In other words, P&G in the same commercial is selling not only a toothpaste but another product. Right now Howard Bell, NAB Code director, is wrestling with the broad question as to whether premium offers fall within the purview of the code's multiple products amendment. Involved in the issue: Fab and its "wedding white" doll offer. Incidentally, P&G's Crest agency, Benton & Bowles, did not submit the Crest-Smokey the Bear doll commercial to the Code office for review. P. S. : P&G has a firm rule against running one of its spots adjacent to a piggyback. NBC-TV day 98 percent sold NBC-TV daytime has just had its best week of the year. The figures in terms of commercial minutes were these: (1) for October 19-23 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. the total minutes for sale were 360, (2) commercial minutes sold came to 352, or 98 percent. The remaining eight minutes were turned over to affiliates for co-oping. It is dubious whether the network will be able to exceed that percentage for the balance of the last quarter — or even the first quarter of 1965. Everyone going to be in daytime during a season is usually on the network roster by the middle of October. NBC-TV meantime is having difficulty finding open spots for sponsors' minutes preempted for the World Series and the recent news breaks out of the Soviet Union and China. P.S.: Don't look for general daytime rate hikes from NBC-TV in the immediate future. There will be, however, some selective raises (such as has already happened twice recently with The Doctors). In September the quarter-hour price for The Doctors went from $12,000 to $13,500. Effective December, the package tag on the strip will be $15,000. Sellers want diary probe Is daytime tv being shortchanged by the diary measurement of housewife viewing? A number of researchers with timeselling organizations think it is. Nielsen has taken cognizance of the gripe. It's agreed to take a closer look at its own diary operations, with a view to finding the faults and rectifying them. Nub of spot sellers' critique: (1) young housewives with a brood haven't the time to post all the shows they see in their diaries, (2) lots of housewives, as revealed by field checks, bollix up their records, listing too many or fewer shows or the wrong ones. Sellers' stance: since most of the spot buying is by numbers, the viewer count should be as exact as possible. Y&R reshaping media department A shake-up of sorts is in the making within the media department of Young & Rubicam. Agency top management has in hand the department's reorganization plan for study and final disposition. The chances are the new setup will become effective by the middle of this week. The plan provides for a realignment of job responsibilities and job definitions. The reorganization comes almost on the heels of Joe St. George's transfer from manager of the media department and might be said to be the first reorganization spasm that Y&R media has experienced since the adoption of the all-media buying system seven years ago. Out of the department readjustment may come a different attitude toward the use of the computer as a tool in the media buying process. In other words, the computer, as far as media is concerned, would be relegated to strictly a bookkeeping function, as distinct from decision-making. As a key Y&R executive remarked: 'The computer can always be used to add and subtract." Cutbacks precede Colgate year-end Colgate needs some extra dividend money for the fiscal year ending in December and so it's doing what it has done in October over the years: -CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE October 26, 1964 27