Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1960)

CRISIS FORMULA ADOPTED BY ANA Better FTC, industry liaison; advertising advisory council A three-point program to meet the crisis in advertising was adopted by the Assn. of National Advertisers at a special meeting in New York last week. It was: • "Better understanding and better working relationships . . . between national advertisers and the Federal Trade Commission. . . ." • "Continuing liaison machinery between national advertisers and the various organizations or individual entities in agency and media ranks which have or may initiate self-regulatory procedures." • Establishment of "an advertising advisory council with high professional advertising attainments and whose status permits complete objectivity, to serve in a consultative and advisory capacity on both broad and specific issues relating to taste and propriety in advertising, and to take such initiative as they deem necessary or desirable in the area of taste and propriety to help assure the credibility and acceptability of advertising." This program was adopted after a meeting in which the advertisers heard: • The presidents of both NBC and CBS-TV assert that broadcasters must No FTC endorsement • FTC Chairman Earl W. Kintner was "strenuously opposed" to any idea that FTC be given power to clear advertising in advance of broadcast or publication. 42 (BROADCAST ADVERTISING) bear the final responsibility for both programming and the reliability of the commercial. • The chairman of ANA declared that while the "final voice" on program content must be the broadcaster's, the "major responsibility" for commercials lies in the laps of advertisers. • The chairman of the NAB Tv Code Review Board ask for "consultation by your staff and members with our board prior to finalizing of commercials, especially in instances when the subject matter or mode of presentation is sensitive." • The chairman of the FTC "strenuously opposed" to any idea that FTC be given power to "clear advertising in advance of its broadcast or printing." ANA Chairman Donald S. Frost, of Bristol-Myers, said the "basic responsibility" for programming rests "and must always rest" with broadcasterseven though "there are many advertisers who feel with substantial justification that it is important for them to have a voice — a participation — in the programs which are presented in their names." But, he asserted, the "advertising message" is "the area where selfregulation begins as far as we are concerned." Basic responsibility • Donald S. Frost, Bristol-Myers, ANA chairman, said program control must rest with the broadcaster, commercial quality with the advertiser. Mr. Frost said, however, that the advertiser doesn't know "exactly where the line is drawn" by the FTC between violation and non-violation. He asked: "Would it not be helpful both to the advertiser and to the FTC if, working together, we could develop more effective machinery for clarification of the Commission's interpretations prior to the issuance of a complaint, rather than after? We believe that if such were the case, the advertiser would be in a better position to evaluate and regulate his own efforts." He wondered, too, whether the advertiser wouldn't be "better off to advertise on the basis of what he should say in the eyes of the public, rather than what he could say in the eyes of the law?" Gray Area • Much of the criticism about advertising, Mr. Frost maintained, falls in a "gray area" where "neither the FTC nor any agency of government has the mandate over what is or what is not objectionable — over what is and what is not in good taste." This, he said, is the responsibility of the advertiser. He also thought it "more important than ever that we consider not only what is good advertising in terms of Code pre-checking • Sensitive commercials should be pre-cleared with NAB's tv code, was recommendation of the code board chairman, Donald H. McGannon, WBC. BROADCASTING, February 8, 1960