Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

ADVERTISERS & AGENCIES continued A two years ago) ought to turn in his greyflannel suit and go to the eternal showers." Noting that / Love Lucy out-pointed Shakespeare four-to-one in the ratings last season, Mr. Cunningham pointed out that the Shakespearean production nevertheless was seen by 15 million people. For Shakespeare, he said, this was "failure" according to the "ruthless law of the decimal point" but not according to "all the less distinct laws of artistry." He continued: "It is much too easy to say: 'I buy by ratings,' or 'give the people what they want — I'll buy it.' "I mean that our obligation to tv goes much, much deeper than that. As advertising men, we must be interested in all tv — not only in our own programs. We want it to be a strong, well-rounded medium. A multiplication of the same type of show, such as the present wave of singers, quizzes and westerns, can only narrow the base of television, restrict its power, its values to the people. "Even the most ardent ratings devotees have an obligation to their companies to look around and beyond the ratings." He said, "You can buy other things beside coverage," citing "atmosphere" as an example and pointing out that "from a strictly selfish, cost-accounting point of view, it can be commercially sound to buy fewer people at a time in a better program atmosphere." The C&W president said that "our obligation, along with broadcast executives, as trustees of programming, requires that we help make room for Shakespeare and others of his ilk for these reasons: "The 10 to 20 million people who like Shakespeare better than Lucy have every right to their minor share of their own airwaves. This kind of program isolates the right markets in the right mood for certain products. "Some of us may want access to these markets. Even those who don't, want a fullrounded medium, not a narrow-based one. "The networks want this too. And they are certainly trying. NBC is offering 100 specials this year. CBS, too, has many new creative shows coming. Some of them I am sure will point the way to more refreshing entertainment in the next few years. "For the sake of tv's future, we must encourage them where we can." Mr. Cunningham said his firm, in its annual Videotown studies, had undertaken to measure the "boredom-factor" by determining the percentage of viewers who made unfavorable comments — "I'm tired of it," or "same old stuff," or "my interest wore out," etc — about specific shows. He displayed a "boredom-factor index" which ranged from 1 1 for / Remember Mama and 21 for What's My Line to 55 for Milton Berle and 47 for Arthur Godfrey. "This doesn't mean that a show with a low boredom-factor is a good buy, nor one with a high boredom-factor is a bad buy," he asserted. "It simply means that some types of programs have greater capacity to bore people than others. There still may be a better advertising potential among the Great Unbored sector of a show with a high boredom-factor. That is a matter of numbers. "But it proves what we long suspected, that any show dependent on a single personality has a greater boredom-factor than those that are less so." He acknowledged, however, that "there have been some wonderful exceptions" to this conclusion, among them Jack Benny and Bob Hope. While the index of boredom has been rising steadily, Mr. Cunningham said, people nevertheless watch programs that bore them — "but they tend to tune out their minds, which is bad for advertising." He voiced confidence that "as the manly medium of communication that it ought to be, [television] will face the realities of life," offering such fare as "wider and deeper coverage of the UN; many, many more such hours as the Khrushchev hour on CBS last spring; televised Congress and courts," etc. But he felt that "thoughtful business behavior" requires advertisers, in considering any program, to "look right straight through the ratings to see: (1) Is there the danger of a fast-developing boredom-factor? (2) How much of the destructive force of imitation is present? (3) Does this program provide the surest access to my market? (4) Does my product need the backing of a good 'house image' and is this it?" He concluded: "We must never forget that the airwaves do not belong to the advertisers — or to the networks — nor to the FCC — nor to the Federal government. They belong to the people of the U. S." ANA Elects Winslow As Board Chairman Ralph Winslow, vice president and manager of the marketing department of Koppers Co., was elected chairman of the Assn. of National Advertisers last Monday as ANA opened its 48th annual meeting (see page 27). Mr. Winslow, who had been vice chairman, succeeds George E. Mosley of Seagram Distillers in the chairmanship. Henry Schachte. Lever Bros, vice president and ANA treasurer, was elevated to vice president of the association, and Paul B. West, ANA's chief executive officer, was re-elected president. Six new board members were elected: I. R. Barlow, manager of advertising services, Chrysler Corp.; Roger H. Bolin, advertising director, Westinghouse Electric Corp.; Rex M. Budd, director of advertising, Campbell Soup Co.; Melvin S. Hattv/ick, director of advertising. Continental Oil Co.; Bertram V. Jones, Link-Belt Co., and Everett M. Runyon, California Packing Corp. Board members who continue to serve this year: George J. Abrams, Revlon; David MR. WINSLOW F. Beard, Reynolds Metals; Ralston H. Coffin, RCA; Donald S. Frost, BristolMyers Products Div.; George Frost, Cannon Mills; Henry M. Kennedy, Prudential Insurance Co.; Howard A. Marple, Monsanto Chemical Co.; Albert R. Stevens, American Tobacco Co., and Ray Weber, Swift & Co. Retiring board members are Edwin W. Ebel, General Foods; Ralph H. Harrington, General Tire & Rubber Co.; John B. McLaughlin, Purex Co.; M. Anthony Mattes, Standard Oil of California; William G. Power, Chevrolet Div., General Motors, and Ben H. Wells, Seven-Up Co. McCoy Dramatizes Spot Radio Story The story of spot radio — "the one advertising medium which reaches into 97% of all the homes in the U. S. A. and in addition gives you the biggest out-of-home circulation of all" — was dramatized for the Assn. of National Advertisers last week by Arthur H. McCoy, executive vice president of John Blair & Co., station representatives. Speaking at a closed, workshop session in which television's and network radio's story was told by Lansing B. Lindquist of McCann-Erickson (see page 36), Mr. McCoy pointed up the "community interest" programming of local stations, the believability of local personalities, and — for advertisers — the sales advantages of being associated with this programming. He cited a Pulse survey showing 85.9% of the people interviewed said spot radio personalities advertise good products, that 61.6% identified sponsoring products and 69.2% said they would try a new product recommended by their favorite personality. Mr. McCoy's presentation, illustrated by slides and sound effects, also revealed results of a nationwide survey conducted by the Blair firm to select the "best" spot radio commercials on the air during the past summer. Based on interviews with some 150 agency executives and more than 1,000 broadcasters, the study showed the following as the six outstanding commercials (not necessarily in rank order): Pepperidge Farm breads, Budweiser beer, Dodge cars, Pepsodent toothpaste, Winston cigarettes and Beech-nut gum. While playing the winning commercials, Mr. McCoy offered capsule success stories. He pointed out, for instance, that Dodge put more than 50% of its budget into spot radio "because they felt this was the only way that they could obtain the repetition necessary to establish their competitive sales point," and "dealer and consumer reaction was so good that they extended their schedule five weeks beyond the original expiration date." He said the Pepsodent commercial "plus 80% of their budget in spot radio produced the outstanding media success story of 1956" and "their continuation through all of 1957 is keeping the Pepsodent name constantly in the consumer's mind." He noted that 1956 was "spot radio's biggest year" and that 1957 to date is running 40% ahead of last year." Broadcasting November 4, 1957 • Page 35