Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

ADVERTISERS & AGENCIES continued N. ' Y., has signed to sponsor three fiveminute newscasts per week on Mutual effective immediately [Closed Circuit, Oct. 21]. Agency is Sullivan, Stauffer, Colwell & Bayles, N. Y. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (Camel cigarettes), Winston-Salem, N. C, has brought three 20-second announcements per week adjacent to MBS newscasts plus four announcements on Saturday. Agency: William Esty Co., N. Y. $2 MILLION MORE • Kraft Foods Div., National Dairy Products Inc., is investing more than 2 million gross to renew advertising schedules on four NBC-TV programs for 52 weeks. Order, placed through J. Walter Thompson Co., N. Y., calls for sponsorship on Thursday of quarter-hour segment of Tic Tac Dough, two participations in NBC Matinee Theatre and Modern Romances and 15-minute segment of Comedy Time. BUSINESS AT CBS • Carnation Co., L. A., has purchased quarter hour simulcast on Art Linkletter's House Party on CBS-TV and CBS Radio for 52 weeks, starting Jan. 1. Agency: Erwin Wasey, Ruthrauff & Ryan, L. A. New CBS Radio sponsors include Time Inc., N. Y., which bought three IV2 minute units of The World Tonight for one week {Life magazine) starting today (Mon.); Penick & Ford Ltd. (My-T-Fine desserts), which has signed for A Christmas Carol on Dec. 22 (6:30-7 p.m.), and Dodge Div., Chrysler Div., both Chrysler Corp., which purchased total of nine "Impact" segments during October-December period. MAKE IT MUTUAL • Major saturation campaigns by Whitehall Pharmacal Div. of American Home Products and R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (Camels) ordered last week on MBS. Whitehall is sponsoring three of Monday-Friday newscasts by Westbrook Van Voorhis (10:30 a.m., 3:30 and 8:30 p.m.). Agency: Sullivan, Stauffer, Colwell & Bayles, N. Y. Reynolds has bought time immediately following 7:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. newscasts on Monday through Saturday basis starting Nov. 4 with additional 8:30 a.m. adjacency available Jan. 1. Starting Nov. 9 Reynolds will pick up Saturday adjacency to 9:30 a.m. daily newscast. Adjacencies at 10:30 and 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on Saturday newscasts will be made available starting Jan. 4. Agency: William Esty Co., N. Y. HALF SOLD • General Foods, N. Y., planning to sponsor Scotland Yard alternate weeks, Sun. 10-10:30 p.m. on ABC-TV, starting Nov. 17. Agency: Young & Rubicam, N. Y. Alternate half hour is available. JOINS TEMPLE TROUPE • Smith Bros. Inc. (cough drops), Poughkeepsie, N. Y., has signed for one minute announcements on each of the NTA Film Network's "Holiday Special" presentations on Nov. 17 and Dec. 8. Agency: Sullivan, Stauffer, Colwell & Bayles, N. Y. Programs comprise Shirley Temple feature films. Other sponsors are Ideal Toy Co. and Toni Co., which signed for all four programs. First presentation was on Oct. 20; second is set for Nov. 3. AAAA SESSIONS I Radio-tv commercials got a clinical goingover, as did the agency's reliance sometimes on the slide-rule as a crutch for media selection, at the annual central region meeting of the American Assn. of Advertising Agencies in Chicago. In the background — and sometimes the foreground — was the technique of motivational research, among other subjects, during the two-day session at the Sheraton-Blackstone Hotel Oct. 17-18. One highlight of the clinic was a talk by Ray Mithun, president of Campbell-Mithun Inc., who criticized the "traditional and unimaginative approach" in selection and use of media [At Deadline, Oct. 21]. Workshops on creative media programs and motivation research, plus a New Yorkbased clinical view of "midwestern advertising," also highlighted the central region meeting. Over 500 agency and client representatives were at the opening Oct. 17 with a fullday closed management meeting on top-level policy subjects. Key speakers were Fred Gamble, AAAA president; Melvin Brorby, senior vice president of Needham, Louis & Brorby Inc., Chicago, and Henry G. Little, president and board chairman, CampbellEwald Co., Detroit. Larry Wherry, president of Wherry, Baker & Tilden Inc., Chicago, presided over a panel on improvement of media relations. Chairmen of other panels were James G. Cominos, vice president and radio-tv director of NL&YB and vice chairman of the AAAA central region; Lowe Runkle, president, Lowe Runkle Co., Oklahoma City; Maurice L. Hirsch, president, Hirsch, Tamm & Ullman Inc., St. Louis; Strother Cary, administrative vice president, Leo Burnett Co., Chicago, and A. H. Gunn III, vice president, J. Walter Thompson Co., Chicago. In one meeting Oct. 18, Paul C. Harper Jr., vice president of NL&B and chairman of the AAAA Chicago council, headed a workshop session in which John Tinker, creative director of McCann-Erickson Inc., and Charles Brower, general manager and creative director of BBDO, participated. They reported their selections of the best creative advertising entries submitted by central region members in 14 states. Interpretation of motivation research was explored by Albert Shepard, director of the Institute for Motivation Research, at a research workshop under chairmanship of Maurice L. Hirsch, chairman of the AAAA St. Louis council. Larry Doyle, sales manager of Ford Motor Co.'s Edsel Div., and Charles Winston, Detroit manager of Foote, Cone & Belding, were the chief luncheon speakers, presenting "The Edsel Story." A media relations panel under Mr. Wherry included Edward R. Hitz, network tv sales manager, NBC Central Div.; Gordon Buck, vice president and media director, Foote, Cone & Belding; John de Bevec, media director, J. Walter Thompson Co.; J. Kenneth Laird Jr., president, Tatham-Laird Inc.; J. H. Sawyer, vice president, Sawyer-Fergu ISSECT RADIO-TV sonWalker Co., newspaper representative, and Fred G. Bauer, western manager, Look magazine. Mr. Mithun noted that "many of America's biggest advertisers in this $10 billion advertising economy still seem to place nearly all their emphasis on nothing but 'cost-per-thousand' media thinking." He suggested more reliance on audience quality (instead of simply quantity) and creative imagination (instead of merely buying off the rate card). Among "famous schedules" in broadcast media, Mr. Mithun pointed out, are those for Hamm's beer, Pepsi-Cola and Wisk, which he described as "multiple-page thinking on the air." Media dollars can be stretched in tv by "buying half as much of something good instead of all of something not quite as good" or, as General Mills did with The Lone Ranger, putting "a good show on twice as many networks (NBC and CBS)." Also cited by the agency president was the greater use of regional network "legs" to fit particular distribution areas (Theodore Hamm Brewing Co. with Person to Person on CBS-TV; Club 60 on NBC-TV). "A look at A. C. Nielsen national brand studies will underline this opportunity. There are very, very few really and truly national products in America," Mr. Mithun claimed. Good Tv Ingredients Ingredients for good tv commercials were discussed by Mr. Tinker, among them simplicity, naturalness and believability, interest and persuasion. He showed film clips of commercials for Pet milk, Tea Council, Sara Lee cakes, Chiffon flakes, American Dairy, Marlboro cigarettes, Morrell hot dogs, Johnson's Raid and Pride polish, Purina dog chow, RCA Whirlpool appliances and Kroger stores. Mr. Brower felt that "advertisements are now so numerous that they are very negligently perused . . . the trade of advertising is now so near to perfection that it is not easy to propose any improvement." Concentrating on print media, Mr. Brower noted, however, that Chicago turned out "some of the best television America has ever produced . . . nice and simple, nice and loose" with the original Dave Garroway Show and later Kukla, Fran & Ollie. A progress report on motivational research was delivered by Dr. Albert Shepard, director of the Institute for Motivational Research. He claimed this art has come a long way in five years and that today the question is not one of what it is but how best to utilize its techniques. The Oct. 1 7 luncheon speaker was Robert S. Macdonald, advertising director of Quaker Oats Co., who told delegates that the Advertising Council public service campaigns "not only are important but worthy enough to become an integral part of the advertisers' national campaigns" and even part of agency campaign recommendations. Such cooperation, he stressed, helps to create more "favorable corporate images." Page 44 • October 28, 1957 Broadcasting