Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1960)

OUR RESPECTS TO . . Fairfax Mastick Cone Among advertising's more devoted practitioners, Fairfax Cone is one of the most ideally suited by temperament and personal ethics to champion the good of the many and to assail the transgressions of the few. As chairman of Foote, Cone & Belding's executive committee, Mr. Cone is regarded as an elder statesman among agency executives, a man sorely needed in advertising's current crisis. One colleague has characterized him as a "catalyst" or "synthesizer" of media, with an ever introspective eye to the creative side of a dollar-and-cents business. Said a competitor: "He's a good Samaritan in advertising, with really no ill will toward anyone. Fax is a kind of messiah who feels responsible for the sins of his advertising brethren and tries to lead them to the promised land." But this reaction is usually quite typical in any Fax Forum: "He said something that needed to be said — it hasn't been said too often before, at least not quite as well." Worth Hearing • Whatever the descriptions, just about everybody, including lukewarm detractors, admit that what Mr. Cone might have to say in today's troublesome advertising-media climate is probably worth hearing. Some samples: • There is room for the magazine or "spot carrier" concept in today's television, just as there's room for westerns and specials. But spot-carrier clients shouldn't be charged the same as regular sponsors because of relative ratings or circulation differences. In this Mr. Cone stands somewhat alone for an agency executive. • All media ought to screen advertising copy before it gets in print or on the air — to assure "proofs of claims" by advertisers. Advertising's sins could be minimized through "censorship" by media. And broadcast media ought to be made primarily responsible for all commercials and programming. • The Federal Trade Commission's stepped-up look-see at tv commercials smacks of a "witch hunt" and "headline hunting." He doubts that charges against tv advertisers will prove to have "any basis in fact" and he is skeptical of the FTC's questioning the use of mechanical techniques to reproduce product demonstrations or product performance. • The press ought to be more meticulous in screening its own ad copy and should "separate the facts from the allegations" in its stories on allegedly deceptive commercials, payola and rigged quiz shows. (One of Mr. Cone's gems: "The television scandals were so ripe and so delectable, despite the pious headshaking that went with the devouring of them, that they simply had to be followed with a series of new, tasty concoctions.") Strong Medicine • These are strong sentiments for a man who rides herd on an agency that bills about $90 million annually, with perhaps $40 million in tv. But not for an outspoken executive who is at once soft-spoken, introverted, creative, critical and rigid in his principles. Fax Cone peers out of horn-rimmed glasses from an impassive (and sometimes compassionate) face that seems to suggest he got into the wrong business to begin with. Proud of his early American heritage (three of his ancestors signed the Declaration of Independence and the first American Cone came to Connecticut in the 17th Century), Fairfax Mastick Cone claims San Francisco as his birthplace. He was born Feb. 21, 1903. Fax Cone was home-taught until he entered the sixth grade of grammar school. At 16 young Mr. Cone went from University High School in Oakland to sea and was graduated in absentia while in Liverpool. In line with his father's wishes he abandoned seafaring and enrolled at the U. of California in 1921. His major college distinctions: he got an "F" minus and, though he was in the class of 1925, he didn't get his diploma until 1947. (English came easy but attendance did not.) FC&B's Cone Advertising's defender Start in Journalism • Out of the U. of California came Fax Cone's stock in trade: journalism (he drew cartoons, was editor of the pictorial magazine and was board member of the school's literary magazine). During the summer he worked as copyboy on the San Francisco Examiner. He moved up fulltime to want ads and promotion, then joined the L. H. Waldrom agency as an artist for $500 a month. Mr. Cone started in the San Francisco office of Lord & Thomas as a copywriter on April 9, 1928, set a wedding date with his wife-to-be (the former Gertrude Kennedy) for June 29, 1929, and then proceeded to wage a painful and body-racking battle against a strange malady. In 1934 he was hospitalized, losing 30 pounds in four months. (The ultimate diagnosis was the opposite of diabetes — recurrent insulin shock. He later was steered to a cure in New York by Albert D. Lasker, head of Lord & Thomas.) Handicaps and all, Mr. Cone was appointed manager of L & T in San Francisco in 1939, chairman of the plans board in New York in 1941 and manager of Chicago operations in 1942. The retirement of Mr. Lasker marked the genesis of Foote, Cone & Belding in lanuary 1943 — it started with $100,000 for immediate expenses and became one of the 10 largest agencies in the country. (Under Mr. Lasker, Mr. Cone was in constant contact with George Washington Hill, head of American Tobacco Co., and created the slogan — "With men who know tobacco best . . . it's Luckies, two to one.") Mr. Cone became chairman of FC&B's executive committee in 1943, president in 1951 and chairman again in 1957, concentrating on policy and creative advertising. Headed AAAA • Mr. Cone is a former chairman of the American Assn. of Adv. Agencies and director of The Advertising Council. He's also active in civic groups, including the U. of Chicago, Chicago Assn. of Commerce and Industry and Chicago Community Fund drives. He and his wife have one daughter, Mary, and live on Chicago's near north side — at 1260 N. Astor St. He likes to read, rest and entertain. At work his main interest is in copy and devising new campaigns — but he believes that research, media planning and merchandising should be no less creative. His desk is the essence of orderliness. And about truth in advertising, he said with characteristic candor three years ago before the probes: "During all the years I've been in the advertising profession I have never — not even once — 'been asked to write a dishonest ad or make a dishonest statement in an ad. I assume that most others haven't been asked either, because I can't believe that I am unique." BROADCASTING, February 1, 1960 105