Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

ADVERTISERS & AGENCIES continued Margarine), Sir Lancelot, Private Secretary re-runs and that program's fall substitution, The Eve Arden Show. For Armstrong Cork Co.'s ceilings, OB&M sat in every third week on CBSTV's Armstrong Circle Theatre. It resigned spot user Diamond Crystal salt this summer, but expanded radio spot lineups (regionally) for Pepperid^e Farm bread and Tetley tea. Nationally, Thorn McAn shoes went after teenagers with d.j. shows and Schweppes USA Ltd. enlarged both tv-radio spot campaigns in major markets. WARWICK & LEGLER: combined tv-radio billing $6.2 million; $3.7 million in television ($3 million in network, $0.7 million in spot); $2.5 million in radio ($2.3 million in network, $0.2 million in spot); tv-radio share of overall billing: 40%. W&L closed out the year with more or less the same billing as in 1956, its gains for 1957 registering on par with its calendaryear losses. While it gained in excess of $5 million worth of Revlon business this fall from BBDO, only a very small part of the billing will show up this year; it lost $5 million worth of Schick Inc. business in midyear, but only about half of Schick billing was registered up to the time this account left for Benton & Bowles. With Revlon, it now is agency of record on both CBS-TV "$64,000" quizzes and partakes in C. J. La Roche's Walter Winchell File (ABC-TV). It lost $200,000 worth of George W. Luft Co. (Tangee lipstick) business to Calkins & Holden but gained an additional $1 million Seagram business (non-broadcast). Ex-Lax expanded its use of radio and Jacob Ruppert Brewery — perhaps for the last time — sponsored simulcasts of the New York baseball home games of the Giants. D. P. BROTHER: Combined tv-radio billing $6.2 million; $6 million in television ($5.5 million in network, $0.5 million in spot); $0.2 million in radio (all spot); tv-radio share of overall billing: 21%. D. P. Brother shows up in the top 50 agencies for the first time this year with a combined tv-radio billing of $6.2 million. Network activity for its clients included: A. C. Sparkplug's Wide Wide World on NBC-TV and Oldsmobile's NBC-TV Color Carnival, two political conventions on NBCTV and Sugarbowl football coverage on ABC-TV. EARLE LUDGIN: Combined tv-radio billing $6 million; $5 million in television ($3 million in network, $2 million in spot); $1 million in radio (all spot); tv-radio share of overall billing: 46%. Earle Ludgin dropped $1 million in combined tv-radio billing under last year's figure. The agency lost Helene Curtis to Gordon Best, Edward H. Weiss and McCann-Erickson and gained Tidy House products from McCann-Erickson. Ludgin had portions of Dick and the Duchess and What's My Line? for Helene Curtis, both on CBS-TV, for a portion of the year. GEYER ADV.: Combined tv-radio billing $5.5 million; $4 million in television ($3 mil lion in network, $1 million in spot); $1.5 million in radio ($0.5 million in network, $1 million in spot); tv-radio share of overall billing: 30%. Geyer dropped $2.5 million under its previous year's total. With the cancellation of ABC-TV's Disneyland this summer, American Motors Corp. began pouring more allocations into network radio but did not compensate for its previous tv expenditures. American Home Products Corp. (BoyleMidway and American Home Foods Divs.) picked up some network showcasing with CBS-TV's Have Gun, Will Travel, NBCTV's Tic Tac Dough and some daytime serials. It resigned Paul Masson vineyards (an occasional broadcast user) and gained Doyle Packing Co. (New Jersey) which it promptly placed in spot throughout the East. FITZGERALD ADV.: Combined tv-radio billing $5.3 million; $4.8 million in television ($2.8 million in network, $2 million in spot); BALTIMORE 6% TAX TO FACE COURT TEST • Media bill: $2.6 million • Taxes effective Jan. 1, 1958 Baltimore's brand new advertising taxes — though pared from 9Vi % to 6% in a lastminute strategy that insured city council approval — will still put a $2,653,000 monkey on the back of local media. That's the estimated annual return from the twin levies as contained in the city budget approved last Thursday. The modified tax proposals were passed 14-6 (on the 4% sales tax of gross advertising receipts) and 14-5 (on the 2% levy on gross of all local advertising media) and were promptly signed Nov. 15 by Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro [At Deadline, Nov. 18]. But, as promised all along by the many opponents of the measures, the legality of the "discriminatory" taxes is slated for a court test. Within hours of the enactment, the A. S. Abell Co., publisher of the Baltimore Sunpapers (WMAR-TV), declared it would contest "the validity of the ordinances in the courts to the fullest extent." The exact nature of the legal counterattack, which would include a plea for injunctive relief, was being worked out late Friday by attorneys of various medical companies involved (see At Deadline). William F. Schmick Sr., president of A. S. Abell Co., said: "We are convinced that the advertising tax ordinances are discriminatory and are a direct violation of the freedom of press guaranteed by the United States Constitution." The 4% sales tax is detailed in Ordinance 1693 which becomes a part of the Baltimore City Code and, insofar as radio-tv is concerned, specifies that the levy be made upon the gross sale price of: "Each and every sale of time on or in $0.5 million in radio (all spoj); tv-radio share of overall billing: 35%. Fitzgerald Adv. appears among the first 50 agencies for the first time with a combined $5.3 million in television and radio. The agency had Wesson Oil on Caesar's Hour on NBC-TV for the first part of the year. Fitzgerald also placed the following accounts in tv and radio spots: Jackson Brewing Co., Snowdrift Div. of Wesson Oil, Louisiana State Rice, Blue Plate Foods, Louisiana Coca-Cola, Pioneer Flour Mills and Austex. RAYMOND SPECTOR: Broadcast billing $5 million, all in television ($4.7 million in network, $0.3 million in spot); tv share of overall billing: 95%. Spector, agency for Hazel Bishop, this year dropped $0.6 million under its 1956 billing. The cosmetic firm was represented over the year on M Squad, Jane Wyman Show and Ted Mack Amateur Hour, all on NBC-TV. END connection with any intrastate radio or television broadcast originating from the City of Baltimore and directed to persons in the State of Maryland, which time is used for or in connection with advertising and advertising purposes." Exempted are non-profit religious, scientific, educational and like organizations. The tax, effective Jan. 1, 1958, is payable by "every vendor" on the 25th of the month next succeeding the month in which the taxable space or time is sold. The companion Ordinance 1694 also becomes part of the city code and states the application of the 2% levy on advertising media, including radio-tv, in almost identical language. Those subject to this tax must file quarterly on or before the 15th of April, July, October and January. An additional bookkeeping headache looms under both ordinances which spell out that "complete and accurate records" with invoices, billing data and other documents "as are necessary to determine the amount of the tax" are to be maintained. The Advertising Federation of America blasted the new Baltimore taxes. AFA Chairman Robert M. Feemster, declared: "Anything that tends to discourage advertising can kill all kinds of jobs in all kinds of fields. It can deprive the public of the benefits derived from mass production — the basis of our nation's prosperous economy. The fact that we have the highest standard of living in the world didn't just happen accidentally. It is the result of mass buying caused through advertising. Advertising is by far the greatest force in mass selling, which alone permits mass production and full employment." Apparently undaunted by the fact that he had motormanned through a tax that hit all Baltimore media and antagonized others outside the city, Mayor D'Alesandro Nov. 15 put himself squarely on the record as seeking the Democratic nomination for governor next year with the flat statement: "I am going to run." Page 48 • November 25, 1957 Broadcasting