Broadcasting (Jan - June 1941)

t5 All-Out for the Battle of Vitamins NEWEST prospect for the broadcast salesman is the vitamin concentrate industry, now entering mass distribution. Riding the crest of a wave of popular demand, this vast potential source of radio ads'vertising for some unknown reason has been scarcely touched. Reported entry of Lever Bros., 1 Cambridge, Mass., into the vitamin concentrate field has focused interest on this natural prospect for the 'tf I broadcast medium. In fact, the vitamin industry provides one of the ■phenomenal success stories of American business. Drug Firms Active Sales trends coupled with government regulation of advertising and labeling in the proprietary drug field have given rise to the belief that the "smart" companies are deliberately adding vitamin products to their lines as insurance against the day when sales of the major drug products might begin to slip in a big way. At least this is the explanation offered for the fact that at least three leading factors in the proprietary drug field have added vitamin products in the last year — Vick Chemical Co., New York, bought the already successful "Vitamin-Plus" product; Miles Laboratories, Elkhart, Ind., added a capsule known as "One-A-Day"; and Plough Inc., Memphis, placed an all-purpose vitamin supplement on the market. In addition to Lever, and those listed above, among other firms already in the field or planning to enter are the following: William R. Warner & Co., New York; Norwich Pharmacal Co., Norwich, Conn.; Lambert Pharmacal Co., St. Louis; Pepsodent Co., Chicago; Kroger Grocery & Baking Co. This list is by no means complete. In addition to nationally advertised products distributed for sale direct to the consumer are hundreds of so-called private brands — nonadvertised brands prepared under individual labels for department stores, chain drug stores, and even in some instances large individual retail drug stores. These private brands give local stations a place in the vitamin advertising sun. Likewise, there are several hundred vitamin and mineral preparations distributed by the so-called "ethical" pharmaceutical houses — Squibb, Parke-Davis, Upjohn, Abbott, etc. — preparations distributed primarily to be sold on the prescription or advice of a doctor. Although these products are not advertised for direct sale to the consumer, large amounts are annually bought without prescriptions — by word-of-mouth advertising from one who has had a product recommended by his doctor. The Commerce Department's 1939 Census of Manufacturing Newest Medicinal Rage, Neglected hy RadiOf Is a Likely Prospect shows that production of vitamin products rose from $27,098,000 in 1937 to $41,644,000 in 1939— an increase of 53.3% in two years. During the same two years, the production value of all drugs advertised for direct sale to the general public went down from $184,000,000 to $166,000,000. Swiftly Upward There are no accurate figures on retail sales value of vitamin products— the Census Bureau figures represent production value only, and there is a big retailer profit in vitamin concentrates ranging around 33 % % on advertised brands. However, Dr. Morris Fishbein, editor of the Journal of The American Medical Assn., estimates that retail sales of vitamin products totaled $100,000,000 in 1940, which can be compared with simi Until now, sales of vitamin-mineral concentrates have zoomed without high-pressure radio promotion — the American public just took to concentrates naturally. Always a lover of pills, the American people didn't have to be pushed into taking magical capsules that contained mysterious vitamins and minerals about which scientists and scientific writers had been talking so enthusiastically for several years. But now the story is diff^erent. Government officials and nutritionists talking to over 700 doctors, home economists, social workers, educators, public health workers and food industry representatives at the National Defense Nutrition Conference stressed the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Average American do not need vitamin and mineral concentrates to assure themselves IF THERE'S one thing the American public likes its pills, especially new kinds. Newest of the achievements of the pill entrepreneurs is the vitamin concentrate. This swiftly zooming industry, a natural prospect for broadcasting, has used some radio, but so far only the surface has been scratched. To analyze the vitamin industry from two angles, Broadcasting assigned Wallace Werble, editor of Food, Drug 8C Cosmetics Reports, to explore the subject from the marketing end, and S. J. Paul, of the Broadcasting New York sta£F, to the advertising angles. lar estimates of $500,000 in 1932, when the industry was just getting under way. The vitamin concentrate industry must be differentiated from the promotion of normally rich vitamin-mineral natural foods or the enrichment with vitamins and minerals of foods low in those elements. Radio was slow on the uptake so far as the vitamin-mineral food picture was concerned, but the new "enriched" bread and flour program [Broadcasting, April 21], as well as the recent National Defense Nutrition Conference in Washington [Broadcasting, June 9], apparently have resulted in a realization by radio of the advertising potentialities in the vitamin-mineral nutrition field. As a matter of fact, this is one of the reasons that makes the vitamin concentrate field an even "hotter" radio advertising prospect. Concentrates now have competition and the stage is set for an "allout" major "Battle of the Vitamins" next fall. Both sides have a story to tell, and this should bode no ill for the wide-awake radio time salesman. of an adequate diet. The main theme of the conference was that the U. S. public could get all the vitamins and minerals necessary from eating everyday food — eating plenty of the right kinds of food in the right proportions. In other words, the housewife can get her family's supply of vitamins and minerals in the grocery store and does not need to go to the drug or department store for concentrates. Food Industry to Reply Typical of the comments made at the conference along this line are: The Food & Nutrition Committee of the National Research Council, a quasi-Governmental agency acting as the spear-head of the new nutrition promotion campaign, reported that proper amounts of the various nutrients, with the exception of Vitamin D which can be obtained by exposure to the sun, can be obtained through a good diet of natural foods. The Public Health and Medical section of the Conference recommended, "The recognition that robust health should be preserved by the use of adequate diets where available and that vitamin pills and concentrates of adequate potency be used only to supplement diets which are necessarily inadequate and by physicians for the treatment of deficiency diseases." The food industry is expected to take up this battle-cry for its fall advertising promotions. Against this, the concentrate industry will have to do a selling job of its own if it is to continue in the "big business" field. The answer will probably run along these lines: Humans being what they are, and modern civilization being what it is, the idea of getting all vitamins and minerals from good foods is, from a practical standpoint, a Utopian ideal. Thus, since science has not been able to find anything to show that vitamins and minerals can be harmful no matter how large the intake, it is better to be on the safe side, via a vitamin-mineral concentrate known to contain the proper amounts, than to depend on diet to prevent deficiencies. Probably there are other points on the side of vitamin-mineral concentrates, but there is no need to outline them here when advertising time is available for this purpose. AMA Opposition There is another reason why the concentrate distributors have a major public relations job to do. The medical profession has not taken kindly to the sale of vitamin-mineral concentrates direct to the, laity without benefit of a doctor's advice. From statements made by Dr. Fishbein, it is apparent that the AMA would like to have foods as the primary sources of vitamins and minerals, with capsules reserved for use only on prescriptions or advice of the doctors. Tied into this is a side campaign being conducted by the druggists. On the theory that vitamin capsules are drugs, retail drug groups have been working to restrict the sale of such products to drug stores which make a healthy profit on this line. On the other hand, large-scale distributors of vitamin concentrates have been seeking the widest possible distribution of their products and have been using grocery stores, department stores, and beauty shops as their outlets. Kroger has been the leader in the grocery field, and "Vitamins Plus" has been the leader in the department store-beauty shop field. In many States druggists got the upper hand when State Pharmacy Boards, which they control, ruled that concentrates were drugs and could not be sold except under the supervision of licensed pharmacists, thus leaving other methods of distribution out in the cold. Kroger bucked a State board ruling of this sort in Indiana and won a court {Continued on page 23) BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising June 23, 1941 • Page 11