Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

MONDAY MEMO from MYRON A. MAHLER, vice president, creative director, radio-tv, Emil Mogul Co. SO YOUR COMMERCIAL IS CLEVER! BUT DOES IT SELL? There are signs that writers of commercials have begun to overreach and outsmart themselves in an effort to attract attention and be different. Certain tendencies in writing call for a second look. I refer to commercials which are: (1) so clever that the sales message is heard or seen ever so faintly, if at all; (2) so ultra-sophisticated that it makes no sense on Main Street, U. S. A.; (3) too advanced in art technique, in the case of tv commercials, to be understood by most viewers; (4) obvious imitations of new techniques and ideas created by other copywriters. When a new type of approach hits the airwaves successfully, we get a plethora of bandwagonjumping commercials that cancels or sharply reduces the effectiveness of the copy device; (5) keyed to the wrong audience. As a copywriter, I am keenly conscious of what radio and tv copywriters are up against. There is the stark need to attract attention on airwaves overloaded with advertising. There is the insistence — sometimes by agency superiors, sometimes by clients — to come up with something "new and different." There is the temptation to create ads which will win awards in competitions. There is the urge to write copy which will be talked about in advertising circles. There is the fear that, unless at least a touch of "cleverness" is added, the commercial will look too simple, too uninspired— to the client. Despite these reasons for the creation of such self-defeating commercials, I am convinced that copywriters have an obligation to both their clients and themselves to resist copy creation for any other reason than selling a product or service to the right people at the right time in the most interesting and effective way possible at the most economical cost. THE COMMON DENOMINATOR MUST BE USED It should go without saying — and I regret the need to say so — that ad copy-creation is no ivory tower undertaking. The copy man is a salesman trying to influence the minds of a great many people. He's not an abstract painter, a vanguard poet or a metaphysical thinker who aims to reach what he considers an audience of the elite. Thus, before a copywriter can even begin to prime his cranial pump on an advertising idea, he has to consider some prosaic facts. These facts, of course, will vary with each type of product or service. If he's selling albums of classical music, the facts he has to take into account will not be the same as those for shoe polish, cosmetics, candy or bread. For a product intended for mass consumption — the kind most of us in advertising deal with — a creator of commercial copy cannot ignore these factual, albeit elementary items: (1) Those are real people at the receiving end of advertising— not characters in a book manipulated by the author. (2) They are people whose average educational level, even in this highly literate nation of ours, is not on a par with that of copywriters. (3) They are people who are not alike, as peas in a pod. They differ from one another and their differences arise from a complexity of factors: national origin, religion, race, education, climate, income, regional mores, local customs, etc. (4) In radio and tv, we are working in fast-moving media of fleeting pictures or words, where there is no time to contemplate and digest. (5) Radio and tv audiences, like the country as a whole, are not the same everywhere and at all times. They differ by market, by station, by program, by hour of day. The very recognition that these considerations exist and are a prerequisite of successful copywriting points to a logical conclusion. Namely, that radio-tv commercials, wherever feasible from a practical standpoint, should not be catchall broadsides. Naturally, network programs make uniform commercials mandatory and recorded jingles have to be standardized in spot campaigns. But there are times when it is desirable to adapt live copy in spots to local conditions. Here are a few examples: • Our field research revealed that in some markets color is the most important factor in the buying of auto seat covers, while in others the dominant motive is value. We wrote the commercials for Rayco auto seat covers to suit. • The white-shoe season starts earlier in some parts of the country than in others. We keyed our commercials to the season for Esquire Lanol-White shoe dressing. • The big season for household fabric dyes is the spring, when homemakers go in for their annual stint of freshening up and renovating their homes. But spring cleaning time doesn't start uniformly, the calendar notwithstanding. So our Tintex commercials took this fact into account. • We learned that in certain markets there is a strong preference among women for high-heeled shoes, while in others the preferred choice is medium-height heels. We slanted copy to suit the local preference when we created commercials for National Shoes Inc. YOU HAVE TO STRIKE A BALANCE At the outset, I alluded to certain tendencies in broadcast advertising. I'd like to return to them. For one thing, I'm not of the opinion that there's no room for ultra-sophisticated commercials. On the contrary, some of them can be good selling vehicles — but only if , they're directed to the few sophisticated audiences there are. But even in sophisticated markets, there's great risk in cleverness for its own sake or to hold interest. Here the danger is that the audience will say: "Wasn't that a clever commercial?" instead of "I'd like to try that product." What this boils down to is the old conflict between form and substance. You have to strike a balance. In advertising, it is fatal, I feel, to let form take precedence over substance, to permit techniques to overshadow content. Just as important as how you say it, I am convinced, is what you say. One last word: It doesn't follow that recognition of the educational level of the average audience demands copy that "talks down." On the contrary, if there is one sin that copywriters must shun, it is talking down to an audience. Actually, simplicity of language is a guarantee that you are reaching the minds of all. You can be clear, concise and convincing in the plainest of English. B. June 10, 1913, New York; educ, College of the City of New York 1933; after stints in teaching, department store advertising and free lance writing, joined Mogul agency in September 1943. In 1945 was named copy chief and in 1950 was elected vice president, creative director for air media, member of the executive committee and member of plans board. Broadcasting November 25, 1957 • Page 121