Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1960)

SHOP EARLY FOR NETWORK TIME K&E says delay fatal for pick of fall tv network lineup; availabilities going fast The danger to an advertiser who delays his early buying decision is to lose a choice program spot in the advance lining up of network fall schedules. This was explained last week in an intraagency seminar held in New York for Kenyon & Eckhardt marketing supervisory executives from branch offices. K&E, which held two identical briefings during March, had a session on tv programming last Thursday. Handling the programming briefing for the agency were Stephens Dietz, group vice president, marketing services; James S. Bealle, tv-radio vice president; Marv Antonowsky. On programming: Availabilities for the new tv network season are going faster and earlier than ever before. For the current season 27% of prime time availabilities (night time programs) on the networks were committed to advertisers as early as the end of February, 1959; for the next season (1960-61) 33% of the availabilities were committed at the end of last month. (By March of last year 51% of the '59-'60 season was sold, 75% by April and 87% by the beginning of July.) On programming trends: Westerns continue to get the highest ratings, but the gap over other program types is narrowing considerably; specials this season have gone down in ratings and in audience share; mystery and drama have about average appeal in metropolitan areas. On the networks generally: The three tv networks are dividing "ratings" fairly equally between them. Advertiser Policy • The advertiser in network today must have a "long-range TV policy," it was observed, and often the client may have to line up his network TV long before he's scheduled media allocation of budget. McGannon criticizes disparaging ads The practice of "ad-vilification" in which some advertisers disparage their competitors and competing products drew criticism last week from Donald H. McGannon, president of Westinghouse Broadcasting Co. The outgoing chairman of the NAB Television Code Review Board also scored the excesses of blatant, repetitive radio commercials ("ad-verbosity") for which, he said, national and local advertisers must share responsibility with broadcasters. Mr. McGannon addressed the monthly luncheon meeting of the Chicago Broadcast Adv. Club last Wednesday. TV PREVIEW . . . Steel 'tours' • U.S. Steel has taped five new tv commercials to feature its new "home modernization" program that promotes home products made of steel. The steel company estimated the commercials starting late this month and continuing in April on U.S. Steel Hour and the daytime / Love Lucy shows on CBSTV would reach respectively a potential 24 million viewers in 134 markets and a 4.5 million audience in 77 cities. The commercials, produced by BBDO, were taped at Video Tape Productions, New York. One of the commercials, which runs 2V2 minutes, presents a "tour" of a home with spokesmen pointing out various steel-made products (see picture). The BBDO production team on the commercials: Jack Zoller, executive producer; Tom Buscemi, producer, and Jim Huff, writer. Jack Brandt, Steel's "spokesman," and model Millette Alexander were cast in the "building products" commercial. He reiterated the belief that current Washington probes carry implications in advertising far beyond those already charged against broadcast programming. He also cited the Roper survey ranking false advertising claims among serious moral problems. Discussing the relative impact of broadcast and print media messages, Mr. McGannon stressed that radio-tv advertising demands greater skill, more intense appraisal of consumer reaction and a high degree of "ad-verity" or truth. Despite criticism, he noted, broadcast advertising compares favorably with other media. Mr. McGannon suggested that consumer reaction to dramatic ad presentations "has never been sufficiently explored since the onset of television." He also felt there is need for a "brand new look" at audience composition in terms of sensitivity to advertising and programming, at "our own images as broadcasters and advertisers" and at voluntary efforts to creative guideposts for improvement. Noting plans for expansion of tv code review board activities in New York and Hollywood, Mr. McGannon also reported that in time, if budgets permit and conditions justify, a Chicago code office may be opened. Detergent market tv-made, report says The heavy-duty household liquid detergent business represents "the market that tv built," according to the Television Bureau of Advertising. TvB documented its claim in a report last week that pointed out that these products were "virtually unknown five years ago," and today represent one of the major advertising classifications on tv. Gross time billings for six of these detergents exceeded $35 million in 1959, more than double the amount in 1958. The bureau noted that figures supplied by TvB-Rorabaugh (spot tv) and leading national advertisers-broadcast advertiser reports (network) show that Adell Chemical Co. (Lestoil) spent more than $17.2 million in tv in 1959, compared with almost $12.4 million in 1958. Other tv expenditures for leading detergents: Procter & Gamble (Mr. Clean), $7.6 million in 1959 against $421,000 in 1958; Texize Chemical Co., $4.6 million in 1959 against $3.6 million in 1958; Lever Bros. (Handy Andy), $4.1 million in 1959 against $740,000 in 1958. TvB said that other detergents, including Colgate-Palmolive's Genie and S.C. Johnson's Bravo and Barcelona also have been active tv advertisers. 52 {BROADCAST ADVERTISING) BROADCASTING, March 28, 1960