Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1964)

all five products have related and progressive functions. A-C had rushed the commercial to the Code Authority office of the NAB on the Friday before its scheduled Tuesday appearance on the comedian's program, and the code group quickly gave its blessing and welcomed the advertiser, who had threatened to be a long-time hold-out, to the integrated fold. The message is now also scheduled and running in spot tv. The products involved in the fiveilcni commercial are handled by all three of Alberto-Culver's agencies — J. Walter Thompson, Compton and BBDO — but Polk says there were no problems resulting from the three-agency participation and he foresees no dificulties in the future. BBDO handled the production duties of the commercial on the Skelton Show. While each commercial in Alberto-Culver's long series of spots on hair preparations has been produced under a theme of "for complete hair care it's VO-5," the five-product spot demonstrates the theme even better in the procession of products displayed. The message used on the Skclton Show opens with a jingle — "The time is now for VO-5/ Be the you you want to be/ Alberto VO-5 for hair/ Says young so beautifully." The follow-up is a short message and item display, in sequence, for each of the five members of the Alberto VO-5 hair-care family: hair conditioner, spray, shampoo, creme rinse and hair setting lotion. The intensity of the sales pitch is about equally divided among the five items. But in other integrated commercials for the same line of products, Alberto-Culver expands the sales emphasis for particular items. Some of the A-C integrated commercials will thus feature only three or four of the hair products in order to permit a stronger primary product sell. The initial five-product commercial "consolidates all hair products under one roof, whatever the viewer's needs may be," Polk explains. "We think that the products complement one another through integration and that the effect of advertising one product rubs off on the next. Whatever your hair needs, there's an Alberto-Culver product to take care of it." The commercial has sparked a good deal of talk up and down Madison Avenue. A vice president at a leading research house notes that the entire industry is closely watching for results of the innovation. And while the commercial has drawn praise for its creativity in producing a smooth flow from one i product to the next, there has been at least some industry comment that too many items are involved for effective selling. Noting that few sponsors have as many as five related products in a particular line, Polk, by contrast, says simply that Alberto is not concerned with the number of items i involved. , "If there were six products in the hair care line," he says, "we would show them all." A check of industry sources dis ; closes that five products in a 60 i second integrated announcement ap , pears to be a record. And since no ■ one knows how many products can Role of the code ■ The critics of broadcast advertising have assailed the frequency of television commercials, among other things, more than the number of products that are individually advertised in the medium. Apart from the subjective standards admen may apply to the examination of the tv advertising daily dancing across the screen, there is considerable research, both eclectic and scientific, to indicate that (a): the American viewing audience is aware of the relationship between every product and brand having the opportunity to be sold via the television medium and the continuity of an affluent society; and (b) : it is also interested in the communication of the intelligence imparted by the commercial. The information gleaned from the tv announcement is different from that which can be secured from any other medium. It moves as well as speaks. But the more vocal critics have been effective enough to move the industry to self examination and, as soon as possible, self-cure. The Television Code Authority of the National Association of Broadcasters — arm of the licensed broadcast industry — must live with the realization that its work involves the gears of economics that move the broadcast operation — and also the manufacturer of products (more affectionately referred to as the client) and his advertising agency. For that reason alone its efforts are dedicated to curing the malady without otherwise disturbing the patient— evolving a new prescription that will not create any side effects. What perhaps was most hamstringing to the rapid effecting of a cure was the fact that the Code Authority— from its inception — could work best only in those areas in which it had jurisdiction through its membership: the commercial for which each of its members sold i time. The crawls, credits, billboards, were long entrenched habits born in , union negotiations; the promos and . trailers, tenants of the medium's , content since sponsorship began, , were learned from radio; station , identification was required; and public service announcements were part of the public interest image examined by the Federal Communications Commission at license re | newal time.' Agglomerately, along with the commercial announcements that are the economic backbone of the television industry, these tended to create the appearance of "clutter" — and the critics fastened on "clutter" as that which "interrupted" programing. What tended to add to the "appearance of clutter," the Code Authority reasoned, was the use of 28 SPONSOR