Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1946)

agencies in cooperation with the station's staff. "ENTERTAINMENT" COMMERCIALS Bbd&o conducted an interesting series of test commercials in 1943 for wildroot CREAM-OIL HAIR TONIC, ROYAL CROWN COLA, VIMMS VITAMINS and HAMILTON WATCHES. The wildroot cream-oil "entertainment" skits varied in length from three to five minutes and were complete visual spots, featuring the mishaps of W^ild-W'ig Charlie and his success after using wildroot. In the test series of three, the first spot was done by puppets and the other two by a live cast. The second commercial in this wildroot series showed Wild-Wig Charlie, played by an actor, getting dressed for a date. A pal advised wildroot cream-oil. Charlie tried it. Two girls came on, took one look at Charlie and fell into his arms. The third commercial spot was a proposal, presented also with live performers. The girl would have none of WildWig Charlie. Papa behind the sofa whipped out a bottle of wildroot; boy applied it, girl accepted on spot. "DEMONSTRATION" COMMERCIALS Easy washer presented one of the most successful "demonstration" commercials. It was actually part of a double-commercial television show titled, Your Face Is Your Fortune, a bbd&o presentation. The merton institute, a job analysis organization, took a girl who was unsuccessful in holding a job, through an aptitude analysis and placed her in the right position. In discussing vocations with another candidate, a housekeeper, the interview led into a discussion of the easy washer. The producer cut the cameras to the easy washer. An announcer took the removable parts out and showed them to the home audience (the camera getting excellent close-up shots of each piece) and explained their function. A camera boomed up and looking down into the interior of the washer showed the announcer replacing the parts and water and soap being added to soiled clothes. Viewers actually saw the washer in operation. After the easy washer television commercial, a telephone survey was made. Fifty-one lujuies in ilic W'RCB area were contacted, representing a sample of approximately 15% of the total television set owners in tlie area. Of these, 47%, or a total of 24, saw the easy washer commercial. Twenty-two or 91.7% were able to name the washing jnacfiine dnnonstraled and 62% thought tlie demonstration convincing. Fifteen women said they would buy an easy washer. This was an evening jjrogram and more than half the home audience, mostly women, enjoyed the demonstration. I'he age group was 20 to 35. AN "INFORMATIVE" COMMERCIAL The GOODRICH "informative" television program was a postwar preview of fabrics, KOROSEAL and other products made from a synthetic rubber substitute. Ihe half-hour institutional, with Dr. Howard Fritz, head of b. f. Goodrich research department, demonstrated how rubber substitute is made and showed some of the uses of the product. After the laboratory process was explained, cameras cut to a living room set. The lady of the house wanted her koroseal curtains washed. Her husband took them down, took them out to the backyard (second cut) and turned the hose on them. In no time, they were fresh and clean, ready to re-hang. This type of commercial would certainly appeal to the average housewife and Mr. Husband. On other sets (there were 5) attractive raincoats were modeled and an outdoor scene showed the husband out golfing with golf balls made from synthetic rubber. Except for Dr. Fritz's actual demonstration of makingsynthetic rubber in a realistic laboratory set, the rest of the commercial was cut in on cue and done in pantomime over Dr. Fritz's voice. This achieved a constant tone of authority. The audience opinion was that commercials similiar to the GOODRICH program are interesting. TIME SIGNALS One of the most successful spot commercials presented at AV^RGB was the series of station breaks, taking from a minute to a minute and 20 seconds, for HAMILTON WATCH. The first commercial opened with a close-up of the Hamilton APRIL, 1946 • 125 •