Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1960)

CAPITAL EVALUATES ADVERTISING AFA hears some constructive criticism on current troubles The advertising industry was exposed to Washington examination last week. It decided the diagnosis was hard to take but there's no point in getting panicky. Representatives from tv, radio, print and other media met with government regulators and legislators Feb. 5, at the second annual Washington conference of Advertising Federation of America. Warnings and threats were popping all day as the industry felt the impact of criticism stemming from tv quizrigging and payola scandal stories. Here are highlights: • FCC Chairman John C. Doerfer said NAB should adopt a seal of approval of programs and commercials in place of the present station-networkfilm subscriber plan (story page 28). It's an idea that could be adopted by all media, he suggested. • John J. Ryan, AFA counsel, called rigged quizzes and payola "the eye of the hurricane" and called for a realistic facing-up to "the consequences to our business which these revelations may effect." All advertising asks, he said, is a chance to clean its own house. • Theodore S. Repplier, president of the Advertising Council, suggested broadcasting critics should take a look at the radio-tv contributions to the council's public service campaigns (see box, this page). • Walter A. Edwards, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce, said America's economic structure would be impossible without the selling persuasion and market information supplied by advertising. • Chairman Earl W. Kintner, of the Federal Trade Commission, said cigarette advertisers have adopted an FTC suggestion that they stop using copy about effectiveness of filters in removing tars and nicotine, along with abandonment of claims to health benefits from smoking filter cigarettes. FCC Chairman Doerfer's plainspoken call for an NAB seal of approval took aim at those who deem the seal plan impractical by saying, "I warn you against those smug individuals who think that if 'everyone sits tight, this thing will blow over.' They have no interest for improvement industrywise for the present or the future. Their counsel should be rejected." Chairman Doefer is author of "The Doerfer Plan" by which tv networks voluntarily agreed to present a full hour of high-level educational or cultural programming weekly in prime evening time, effective after the November elections (Broadcasting, Jan. 25). He first advanced the idea in a Jan. 14 talk before the New York Radio & Television Executives Society. The Tax Threat * Mr. Ryan took a cold, legal look at Washington goingson and described specific steps taken by government agencies that relate directly to advertising's welfare. He was most alarmed by the adamant position Internal Revenue Service is taking in its decisions, particularly in the case of institutional advertising deductions. All in advertising should contact legislators at the grass-roots level, he said. Two-score broadcasters were delegates at the all-day meetings. They were joined by other broadcasters at the evening reception for legislators and federal officials. NAB and other media associations were represented. AFA first entered the Washington scene a year ago when it held a legislative conference. The first meeting brought up so many governmental influences that AFA decided the idea should be permanent and it later installed a Washington office. Secretary Edwards, stating the Com merce Dept. position, noted there are "some who judge your industry on the basis of the excesses or misconduct of a few who may engage in overly spectacular or deceptive actions. There are others who stress only the intensive promotion through advertising of highly competitive brands of similar goods of different manufacture. Many overlook the more far-reaching, important and basic function of advertising in providing consumers with complete and up-to-date information on market developments and opportunities, new products and services — information highly essential to the successful operation of today's complex market mechanism." The Years Ahead • Mr. Edwards referred to forecasts that advertising expenditures may double in the next 10 years, a little more than twice the anticipated increase in gross national product. Noting the alarmist hollering and pooh-poohing of "the status-quoers," Mr. Ryan said "any amount of wrongdoing is already too much, and appropriate safeguards must be provided to insure against the recurrence of such wrong-doing." He congratulated FCC and FTC on "a most statesman-like approach to this Public service "No industry in this or any other country has more to be proud of," than advertising, Theodore S. Rep plier, president of the Advertising Council, said Feb. 5 at the AFA's Washington meeting (see main story this page). Advertisers and media contributed to a new record Mr Repplier high of $180 million in time and space during 1959, he said, in describing their cooperation with the council's public service work. Mr. Repplier added, "In these days when broadcasting is being lambasted from every side, its critics should make a cud of this fact and chew it: There has not been one single day for the past 18 years since the council was formed, when broadcasting has failed to deliver vital messages in the public service. Whatever may be its sins of to be proud of omission or commission, it has been everlastingly faithful to its assignment as carrier of Advertising Council public service messages. "A home impression is one message heard once in one home. Last year, according to A.C. Nielsen figures, Advertising Council campaigns received, through commercial network time periods alone, a total circulation of more than 18 billion radio and television home impressions. This represents an astonishing contribution of time and talent by broadcasters and by advertisers. There is nothing in any other country in the world that can match it as a voluntary effort of private enterprise. "I am not one of those who maintains that advertising is without sin. It is not an entity of its own, but a useful tool used by men — and men are deceitful as well as honest, tasteless as well as cultured, and stupid as well as brilliant. Advertising will always mirror the caliber of those who create and direct it." 38 (BROADCAST ADVERTISING} BROADCASTING, February 8, 1960