Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1964)

SPONSOR W^EEK Admen Examine Anatomy of Tv Commercials F&S&R exec sees common denominator in spots; Y&R v.p. tells AAAA membership what to avoid New York — Two agency executives had some pithy words of advice on tv commercials last week at the eastern annual conference of the American Assn. of Advertising Agencies. Edward H. Mahoney, vice president and manager, television and radio, Fuller & Smith & Ross, cited 12 memorable commercials and their common denominators. Stephen O. Frankfurt, senior vice president, Young & Rubicam, in his comments, gave AAAA members a checklist of what to avoid in tv spots. Speaking at the "Commercials '65: The Look, the Sound, the Sell" session of the conference, Mahoney said that after a survey of agency personnel, he studied the 12 currently most remembered commercials and found that the "com mon denominator is that each commercial has its creative root in one of the four Action Drives." Referring to them as "the four drives that make a human get up and do something," Mahoney listed them as hunger, sex, security, and anger. On hunger, he said that when the viewer watching tv "sees a commercial which touches him on the hunger or thirst drive, he may well get up out of his chair, walk to the kitchen and act." Security, he said, had its corollary — status. "The security drive produces action in two ways," he added. "First, a noise in the night brings you out of a sound sleep into wide awake alertness, then out of bed to investigate what's threatening your nest. The other face of the security Janus, status, TyB's 10th Annual Meeting Begins Today New York — Pegged to the theme, "The Years Ahead," the 10th annual membership meeting of the Television Advertising Bureau gets underwav today (Nov. 16) in New York. With the sessions running through Nov. 19, speakers will include: James Douglas Kirk, executive vice president. Sales Analysis Institute of Illinois, Inc. (topic: Effective Selling in Tomorrow's Economy); Dr. Arthur Kantrowitz, vice president and director, Avco Corp. (topic: Greater Communications Between Communicators and Scientists); Stephen O. Frankfurt, senior vice president and executive director of art. Young & Rubicam, Inc. (special presentation for agency timebuyers); Rev. Thomas M. Garrett, S.J., associate professor and director of the Institute on Business and Social Ethics, University of Scranton (topic: Television Through a Scholar's Eyes). A special feature story on TvB can be found on page 49. Arthur Kantrowitz Stephen Frankfurt is the 'Keeping up with the Joneses' syndrome." Continuing, he said nothing produces quicker action than anger, citing the ten second ID — "How would you like a Hawaiian punch?" as a cleverly designed example of touching the viewer via the anger drive. As for sex, Mahoney noted, "the drive is obvious. When one enters a room filled with people and you observe a girl that attracts you, the automatic move is one of action." Mahoney then showed the 12 commercials to his 4A audience, asking them to determine which Action Drive was the creative root in each. Frankfurt, in the role of tv-commercial critic, pointed out that when a print ad comes out, it has a different dimension for each reader. One person may scan it, another may take it to the bathroom and study it, and still another may clip it and go back to it over and over again. "But a television commercial has the same dimension for everybody," he said. "Thirty seconds. A minute. And then your message has had it." Frankfurt declared a "message has had it" under the following conditions: . . . when it tries to tell too much. . . . when you forget that a commercial is an interruption of either entertainment or information that the viewer is watching. ... if you paint yourself as a truth sayer, and use phoney language and unbelievable sounds with which to present your truth. ... if your sound fights the picture. ... if its sound is created — not for use in the living room, but for use in the Hollywood Bowl. . . . when you forget that words for television are not designed to be read, but to be heard. Finally, Frankfurt said, "Your message has had it if you think that only the dreariest part of life is worth being sliced." 26 SPONSOR