Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1964)

R,j i' I '•'Mi, com:m:eh.cza.i. crztiqus: Nudging the rut-bound by Bea Adams Fv Creative Director Gardner Advertising Agency A long dry summer has crackled iby since The American Tv Commercials Festival. By now, methinks, most agency and client personnel have gathered in one spot or another to see their prize-winners or to confirm their suspicions that the winners (not theirs) weren't one I ibit better than some of the losers. ' Most of this year's winners deserved to be. To name a few: Betty Crocker Gourmet Food Series; Volkswagen Sedan snowplow; Xerox; Laura Scudder potato chips; Coca Cola music and lyrics; special citation to Barbara Baxley for best off-camera presenter. These and many others were all worthy and all winners at the box-office, too. Since another festival will be coming up. come spring, I'd like to tip my turban to Wally Ross for keeping it alive because (a) it gives recognition to otherwise unsung laborers in the creative vineyards and (b) it gives advertising and advertising students a chance to see samples of some pretty fascinating I work. Anything that nudges the rutbound and stimulates the hopefuls is all to the good. So there. Van Heusen Wash "n Wear Shirts, a winner, is still working hard. Reason: demonstration will always be one of tv's great strengths. Van Heusen went the I route of exaggeration to demonstrate the wash-and-wearness of the shirts. In one commercial, man on way to work steps out from surf complete with briefcase, and wet as a mackerel in his Van Heusen Shirt. The "sell" is his spic-and-span-ness in seconds, no wrinkles. At commercial's end, he heads back home to the waves. Another in the series shows VH wearer going through car wash. Exaggeration pays off because of memory-denting punch it delivers regarding the primary appeal. A non-entry via Jamieson of Dallas also smacks of this same kind of way-out demonstration. Product: Haggar Slacks. Problem: to show how slacks hold crease when wet. Solution: let guy swim in them. (See photo of swimmer emerging soaking wet, crease very much in evidence.) Major portion of commercial is under-water photography achieved neatly enough at Southern Methodist University in the Olympic swimming pool where camera-man could shoot through an underwater window. Another winning series (my opinion) currently running and new, I believe, since festival — new Joy. Sample: hubby in living room watching tv or practicing his putting. VO: "What kind of guy are you, having a ball in the living room while your wife's in the kitchen doing the dishes?" Husband: "So we had dinner, so there are dishes to do." Then the punch. Aimed at the man. "Joy is made to do the dirty work no woman should have to do." Sales story is told, bubble by bubble. In this dishwasher's opinion, it's been a long time since a detergent came clean with a line so psychologically on target as this one. Good luck, outof-thc-rutters! may Joy sales be unconfined! Another festival citation (much to my surprise and delight) was a low-cost commercial via Hicks, Greist & O'Brien, Boston, for Homemakers Beans. Cast: one superb pitchman Jess Cain who loud-lungs it with "Join the fight against watery baked beans! Against beans thinned out with tomato sauce. Homemakers doesn't watch the clock (throwing watch on floor) — Homemakers watches the beans.''' Atmosphere of political rally achieved with bobbing signs to communicate an extra point here and there. One of an amusing Hdggar's Slacks after a swim but somehow hard-selling series created five years ago and still being used. Cost: $1500 per, including talent fee, props, supervision and tape. Give it a thought. Other thoughts worth fastening your mind on: The honesty of Saran Wrap commercials. The "Pepsi Generation" — powerful words with a swift, sure aim. Johnson's Patty-Cake Powder — "so soft it feels like love." Credits: Van Heusen Shirts: Grey Advertising, Inc. with writer Nancy Sutton, art director Joel Wayne and agency producer Charles Powers. Haggar Slacks: written and produced by L. E. DuPont, veep and tv director, TracyLocke Advertising. Homemaker Beans: writ by Pete Nord, copy chief at Hicks & Greist, New York, with Eli Tulman, art director. Produced in Boston on tape originally using facilities of WHDH. Now, unleash the hounds and let's track down some exciting new tv work for December — now that the election returns are in and the groans have been heard from here to some happier hunting ground. ♦ Pitchman for Homemakers Beans ! I J November 23, 1964 61