Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr-Jun 1957)

THE EYE-CATCHERS IN TELEVISION ART FOR DETROIT — or more specifically, Ford Motor Co. — good design pays off in other places besides the dealer's showroom. Next Monday noontime, Ford — on behalf of its Ford and Lincoln divisions, through J. Walter Thompson Co. and Young & Rubicam, respectively — will take top honors in the television category of the 36th annual National Exhibition of Advertising and Editorial Art and Design. From Monday afternoon (today) through June 7, at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, the public may view these two winners and others picked out of a total of 13,848 entries representing all media. The seven tv awards were drawn from a pool of 409 also-rans. The 1957 exhibit is coincident with the second annual Visual Communications Conference (May 27-29) which this year will play host to many industry leaders from the fields of art, research and broadcasting. Among the speakers will be radio-tv critic Gilbert Seldes, Donahue & Co. Executive Vice President Walter Weir and motivation research expert Pierre D. Martineau. According to Arnold Roston, former MBS art director and now an art director at Grey Adv., New York, who this year serves as exhibition chairman, it took four "back-breaking weeks" to run through the entries and hit upon those which, in the jury's eyes, "performed their function as advertisements within the framework of good art and design." Mr. Roston admitted that in its deliberations, the jury (see picture) tried to have "as little as possible" to do with sales impact or the actual effect of each particular ad upon the consumers it was designed for. "We were more interested," he noted, "in good taste and brilliance of conception and execution." The winning entries appeared over the 12-month period beginning Feb. 15, 1956. Conspicuous by their absence this year were the two Piel Bros, who won the 1956 special tv medal [B»T, June 4, 1956], but their places have been well taken over by the small fry. Leading the pack is "Small Chinese Baby" struggling masterfully through a bowl of shimmering Jell-0 and armed only with chopsticks. Behind him is the "typical" American youngster through whom Prudential Insurance Co. of America sells parents on annuities and the pint-sized version of Hopalong Cassidy whose biggest battle is against breakfast cereal until the day he's finally won over to Maypo. In the show-titling or promotion category, NBC beat out CBS two-to-one, but the two networks tied each other in the non-broadcast category of print advertising and sales promotion (see sidebar). There were few "new trends" this year. The "relaxed sell" remains triumphant, which proves again that in advertising, one picture many times speaks louder than a handful of copy. Also up for applause were the efforts of two of the networks in the promotion-graphic arts field. CBS Inc., on behalf of its recording subsidiary, Columbia Records Inc., received a gold medal for an "LP" record album; it also won a certificate of merit for a CBS-TV advertisement drawn by Ben Shahn for See it Now. Its Washington, D. C, affiliate, WTOP-TV copped a certificate of merit for artist Robert Osborn's portfolio, "Capital Types," mailed earlier this year to advertisers and agency executives. NBC-TV won two certificates, both in the category of promotion. One was for the network's Kraft Television Theatre colorcasts, the other — a mailing piece — on behalf of Queen for a Day. THE FIRST CHOICES 1 LINCOLN TOP AWARD: for design of complete tv unit, live film commercial, to art director Stephen O. Frankfurt, producer-director William S. Muyskens, and Wilding Productions Inc. Advertiser: Lincoln Div., Ford Motor Co., Detroit, Mich., and placed through Young & Rubicam, New York. Page 114 • May 20, 1957 TOP AWARD: for design of complete tv unit, full animated film, to Bill Melendez (director); Chris Jenkyns and Sterling Sturtevant (copywriter and designer); Bill Littlejohn (animator), and Playhouse Pictures Inc. (producer). Advertiser: Ford Div., Ford Motor Co., Detroit, through J. Walter Thompson Co., New York. Broadcasting • Telecasting