Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1959)

FTC EXPANDS ITS TV MONITORING Auto glass commercial cited in new 'get tough' policy The Federal Trade Commission last week delivered a promise — and its first lick — in a suddenly stepped-up campaign against what it feels is deception in television commercials. In a statement released Nov. 2, FTC Chairman Earl W. Kintner announced the agency will combat tv commercials that deceive by doubling the FTC's radio-tv ad monitoring staff, by monitoring tv network programs around the clock during broadcast hours, by demanding scripts of all tv network commercials during the Nov. 15-Dec. 15 pre-Christmas period and by intensifying its investigations of non-network tv advertising throughout the country. Two days later (Nov. 4) came the first action in the FTC's get-tough plan (Closed Circuit, Nov. 2): General Motors Corp., Detroit, and LibbeyOwens-Ford Glass Co., Toledo, were charged with using "camera trickery" in tv commercials which deceptively minimized the amount of optical distortion of L-O-F plate glass used in GM cars as compared with other glass used in cars made by other manufacturers. Libbey-Owens-Ford promptly issued a denial that its advertising was false or misleading (see below). General Motors said it would have no comment in the immediate future. The FTC action came as Charles Van Doren, onetime public hero No. 1 of the tv quiz shows, did public penance before the House Legislative Oversight Subcommittee for taking part in the "rigged" shows (story page 39). It came, many thought surprisingly, only two weeks after Mr. Kintner had urged broadcasters at an NAB regional meeting to tighten their self-regulation of tv advertising lest the FTC step in and only three weeks after Mr. Kintner himself underwent questioning by the same House subcommittee, along with FCC Chairman John C. Doerfer. Public Reaction • Mr. Kintner said the FTC is expanding its monitoring as a result of numerous letters it has received from the public stemming from revelations before the House group about rigging of tv quiz shows. Though his agency cannot control program content, he said, "the honesty of tv commercials is very much our concern." In his statement, Mr. Kintner called on broadcasters to crack down on commercials whose "bad taste" the public has complained about to the FTC, even if no legal action is "now" possible concerning these. He said broadcasters have a responsibility to "clamp down" on "advertising excesses that dance on the edges of the law." Broadcasters, he said, should cooperate with the FTC as a matter of "enlightened self-interest" by rejecting illegal advertising and by screening out commercials which "exaggerate, irritate and nauseate." The FTC chairman said the agency's war on deceptive tv commercials is not new. Under way now are 53 investigations, he said, while 18 complaints and 11 orders have been issued since July 1958. These objectionable tv commercials, both audio and video, have taken weeks and months of "painstaking care" to develop legal proof, he said. He noted other misleading radio and tv advertising has been stopped by FTC orders against the same advertising in print, since an FTC order forbids the challenged advertising in all media. 'False' Comparison • The FTC's complaint against General Motors and Libbey-Owens-Ford cites two specific instances in which, it claims, illegal deception was used, although an FTC spokesman said others will be described at the hearing itself, now scheduled for Jan. 18 in Chicago. The two, both involving visual deception: that in one picture sequence, showing disparity between the optical distortion of safety sheet glass made by other manufacturers for non-GM cars and safety plate glass made by L-O-F for GM cars, different camera lenses were used for the two products, resulting in an "inaccurate demonstration" of FTC Boss Kintner Double trouble for tv the comparative distortion; that in another sequence, the picture, purportedly taken through an automobile window made of L-O-F's safety plate glass, actually was taken through an open window (with the glass rolled down). FTC charged deceptive photography "and devices" were used to exaggerate the distortion in sheet glass (not produced by L-O-F) and to minimize distortion in L-O-F's safety plate glass. The glass used was in the side windows of cars. The two companies have 30 days to file formal answers to the complaint. The FTC's Bureau of Litigation, which will try the case, last week vetoed requests for more specific information beyond that designated in the formal complaint: i.e., actual commercials involved, pictures of the alleged deception in FTC files, networks, programs and dates. FTC Is Watching You • But Charles A. Sweeney, chief of the radio-tv monitoring unit, and his boss, Sherman Hill, director of the Bureau of Investigation, described how FTC Chairman Kintner's orders to step up FTC policing actions will be implemented. Mr. Sweeney said an increase will be made in the number of fulltime monitors, now two. and parttime monitors, now three. He didn't know exactly how many "man days" would be added, but thought it would be "more than double" that at present. The full day's schedule for the three tv networks will be monitored by watching programs over affiliate stations in Washington and was to have been in effect by last week, he said. He noted the FTC would have to pull people off other jobs to do this, since the agency has no extra money for the new work. The monitoring unit's work will be supplemented and expanded by assigning specified hours for watching to the FTC's whole professional staff (mostly lawyers, but including economists, accountants and doctors), according to Mr. Hill. The FTC put such a plan into effect shortly after its monitoring unit was organized (Broadcasting, Jan. 14, 1957), but discontinued it a year ago, instructing its professional people merely to report any questionable commercials they saw or heard on radio or tv on their "own" time, much as a policeman is expected to watch out for law violations while off duty, as Mr. Sweeney termed it. Local Shows Too • The assignment of hours to watch tv apply to FTC staff 56 (SPECIAL REPORT: QUIZ CASE) BROADCASTING, November 9, 1959