Broadcasting (Oct 1931-Dec 1932)

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How the Free Advertising Racket Operates By J. D. SECREST Some Examples of the Give-away Bait Employed to Lure Broadcasters Into the ^Sucker League of America" MANY and varied are the "kind offers" of advertisers and agencies to furnish sustaining features to broadcasters on a no-pay-no-charge basis or else give the station an opportunity to reap "huge profits" by selling products on a commission or a pre-inquiry basis. A glance through a hundred typical proposals reveals the brazenness rather than any ingeniousness in the solicitors of this growing ethereal publicity racket. All attempts to clothe the requests for free advertising in a cloak of something-for-nothing to the broadcaster are of the crudest and most infantile sort. And the commission offers are couched in the language a sales manager might use in addressing newly recruited salesmen. Following up the complaint first voiced by S. G. Persons, general manager of WSFA, Montgomery, Ala., who is now conducting the campaign for resignations from the "Sucker League of America," Broadcasting has made a minute examination of some of these letiters that fill the mail of most of the smaller stations and even find their way into the hands of the [larger broadcasters. Magazines Most Impudent :ONE OF the most amazing facts uncovered by this study is that magazines, which with the press ; are the outstanding advertising rival of radio, are the most shameless in their demands for free time on the air. Their proposals do not have even the questionable merits of a commission proposal. Motion pictures have only recently entered this field on the same basis though with the lure that local exhibitors may sometime in the future be persuaded to turn some of expenditures for newspaper advertising into radio advertising channels. One of the most amusing of these offers is that of a California gold mine corporation, which was willing to trade 20 per cent of its authorized promotion stock, toether with a cash commission on sales, for a half hour daily, except Sunday, on the station for a year. The commissions alone, it was estimated, would net the broadcaster from $25,000 to $50,000. The promoter did not suggest what disposition the station might make of the stock. For Catalogue Placing AMONG the magazines which have sought to obtain free time on the air through the offers of fashion 'service, dramatic skits and the like are Harper's Bazaar, Good Housekeeping, Liberty, Cosmopolitan, Red Book, Aces, Butterick Paris (Fashions and Specialty Salesman. Many mail order houses have tried to use radio as a medium for distributing their catalogues to AN EXAMINATION of approximately 100 typical free-advertising propositions makes one marvel that any broadcasters have been tricked into giving away valuable time either under the assumption that they are getting good sustaining features for nothing or that they will cash in on commission sales. Fortunately, most stations turn such offers back immediately with the curt note that they don't accept such advertising except at usual rates. This article, by a member of the staff of BROADCASTING, reveals the striking lack of ingenuity on the part of the agents and manufacturers who promote this new racket. known in the film industry as movie trailers. Chance of a Lifetime "KNOWING the difficulties that a great many radio stations have in providing unusual sustaining features, particularly during the summer months, we believe that this offers an opportunity for your station to obtain at no cost a series of the finest electrical transcription productions ever made, having an intense and dramatic-building appeal in your own locality." The Excelsior Springs Mineral Water Crystals, through an agent, suggested this arrangement: 60 cents on each $1 order "with the understanding that when they produced 2,500 orders (and receive $1,500 therefor, subject of course to our agency discounts) we would then contract for $1,000 worth of straight time." The International Circulation Company, New York, opened its letter to one station thus: "Would you like to attract to your station the vast literaryminded audience that lives in the territory in which you broadcast?" The letter then adds that a "fresh literary tone" may be obtained by using the enclosed material advertising Cosmopolitan. Similar material may be had from Good Housekeeping and Harper's Bazaar every month, the writer states. Magazine Rackets ONE OF the most persistent of these publicity seekers among the magazines is Liberty, judging from the number of follow-up letters. The programs are weekly dramatic skits adapted directly from stories in the current LIBERTY issue. The proposals are made by Radio Artists Guild, Minneapolis. Radio Presentations, Inc., New York, states that many requests have been received from stations for recorded programs that could be used as sustaining programs. prospeq^K customers. They offer the statroi 15 or 25 cents for each inquiry or request for a catalogue in return for frequent commercial announcements. An idea of the variety of products for which free advertising is sought on the air may be gleaned from the following: Mineral water, patent medicines, hair remover, a variety of beauty preparations, perfumes and cosmetics, baby chicks, seed, grave markers, antennae, electrical devices, cleaning fluids, oranges and grapefruit, books, quilts, plant spray and the developing of camera films. Range of Commissions THE COMMISSION offered on most of these products varies from 10 or 15 cents for each inquiry to a 100 per cent on each sale of a grave marker. The average is 50 per cent. Some scattered examples of the bait offered will illustrate the impudence of the radio racketeers better than any further editorial comment. A representative of the Fox Film Corporation in offering 15minute air trailers of new motion pictures suggests that the free use of these transcription programs may lead to a lucrative business. "However, the local film exhibitor's budget has been cut tremendously," he adds. "He has spent his money in newspapers for years and is very newspaper-conscious, and the transition of the mind of the local exhibitor, according to tests that have been made, cannot be effected in a day or a week." Brown & Hart, Inc., advertising agency, writes to a number of stations: "We are arranging with a number of leading film production companies to make and release 15minute dramatized versions of their feature film productions for the ensuing year. These programs will be comparable to the advance showing of the oncoming pictures "We have arranged with the editors of Red Book magazine to stand the complete cost of making a series of electrical transcriptions, which will be absolutely devoid of any commercial sales talk, profanity or loose humor. The announcements are so worded that the stations will receive credit for the presentation." Specialty Salesman, a magazine specializing in help-wanted advertising, offers 15 cents for every order for a single copy of the publication at 25 cents made through the station. The writer naively admits, however, that the magazine is sold at all news stands. Chicken Feed STANDARD Sound Recording Corporation, of New York, tried to pull a fast one on a certain station which agreed to take a series of recorded programs made by the Aces Magazine Company provided the feature contained no mention of the magazine. The transcriptions were later returned after the broadcaster discovered they did contain advertising. A poultry farm is willing to pay 35 cents, subject to the usual 15 per cent agency discount, for each inquiry regarding baby chicks, whereas a seed house offers a station 15 cents for each written request to the broadcaster for a catalogue. Another poultry farm offers 25 cents for each catalogue request. The Kidwell Granite Works, of Versailles, Mo., calls the attention of one broadcaster to the fact that there are 18,000,000 unmarked graves in the United States and suggests that the station sell such markers for $12.50 each and take $6.25 as its commission. Disguised Advertising TWO INSTANCES of publicity that contained no commercial names were uncovered. The National Confectioners Association, of Chicago, and the Save the Surface Campaign, of Washington, have sent considerable material to stations with the aim of gaining free advertising for the candy and the paint industries. An idea of the worth of some of the products for which free advertising is sought may be gleaned from the following offer of a certain mid-west beauty cream manufacturer: The cream sells for $2.50 retail, the manufacturer states, and yet the station would be permitted to sell the product for $1 and keep 50 cents as its commission. Occasionally the bait includes testimonial letters from broadcasters, but oftener unsubstantiated claims are made that a large number of stations have accepted the free advertising. Many of the propositions contain a remote lure that real advertising contracts are in the offing, providing the station proves its selling power. Imagine a newspa (Continued on page 20) Uugust 1, 1932 • BROADCASTING Page 9