Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1964)

com:me:iicia.i. critique Adgirl csught in commercial grip By Bea Adams Tv creative director Gardner Advertising Agency ■ That first day of autumn has come and gone and something disturbing has happened to me. 'Tis my custom to read during most of the tv shows and look up when the commercials come on. But the networks panted about their premieres so persistently, I caught myself watching programs and, in some cases, missing the commercials. Though not an official program critic, I venture a few comments. Mildly amused by Crosby show, didn't stay with it, missed commercials. Got worked into a frenzy watching The Man from U.N.C.LE.; impossible to leave during commercials because they maintained the same high pitch. In excitement and sheer drama, the Chevrolet commercials matched the tense mood of the show. Quite a feat. First commercial, delivered in'cisively and urgently, used such adjectives as "spectacular" and "spicy," such promises as "more international flair than anything near its price" and the cars shown didn't argue with the copy. Second commercial equally spectacular and ispicy. Each new Chevy model came booming out from under a gigantic [waterfall. Car after car gleamed by to be introduced and shake my faith in the two-year-old darling in my garage. Program and commercial mood was the matchingest job I've seen in many a season. Again straying from my appointed task, a comment on Chevy radio spots. Built on the pattern of recordings that greet the ear when you :all for an airline or train reservation, the spots began with a feminine voice saying: "This is a recording. The time is Sept. 24 to see the new Chevrolets ..." and went on from there to extole the virtues of cars to be unveiled the following day. Same commercial, complete with the "ping," repeated thrice within about 15 minutes. Seemingly, CampbellEwald reasons that a relentless barrage just prior to the debut of '65 models pays off. Bet it does, too. At any rate, the Chevy (maybe because of concentration) hit me harder than the Roaring '65 Plymouths commcrcialed with the Bob Hope Comedy Special. Could be, program out-distanced commercials. Not so with the premiere of Shindig. Commercial on Tiger Paw Tires by U.S. Royal gripped me like they grip the road. Might not have been the premiere of this commercial but those big tiger paws have visual impact not quickly forgotten. They stayed with me despite the swift pacing, the freshness of direction and production, the surprises dropped in now and again and the non-verbal intros that made the first Shindig fascinating to watch. The CBS special, Lincoln Center Day, so intrigued me that I must have read during the commercials. That has to stop. I've got to get back to my habit of reading during the shows and looking up during the commercials. Right here in St. Louis, there's some bank advertising that does a nice job of getting away from the stodgy. Not easy to do but it's being done by a couple of cartoon characters— Nibbledebuck, a sneak who nibbles away at your money; Fritter Critter, typical of the procrastinator who hangs onto checks instead of depositing them promptly so the money could work for him. Advertiser: First National Bank in St. Louis. Agency: Gardner. Now back to a commercial heard some time ago. Might have had its final run by now but I feel compelled to report on it. My eyes are devouring a book, I'm half listening to tv when a man on that Thing announces he hates lumps in cream of mushroom soup. Because he sounds like someone's husband instead of an "announcer," I look up. He says a special kind of cornstarch Fritter Critter Nibbledebuck makes one cream of mushroom soup smooth as — well, maybe, a mushroom. And he says, in a voice I've got to believe, that he plans to keep that one cream of mushroom soup just that way. Who he? Then he tells me. His granddaddy's name, he says, was H. J. Heinz and that's his name, too. A disarming and believable kind of commercial used infrequently and effectively in tv's early days but now all but forgotten in the maze of new equipment, new production techniques, new everything except an avalanche of new commercial ideas. Ideas that can combine excitement and believability. Ideas that will keep you fastened in your seat during the commercial and let you wander, if you must, during the show. October 26, 1964 61