Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1947)

retail advertisers. It has the advantage of low production cost, and its very lack of gilt and tinsel gives it a down-to-earth, sincere quality that contributes to its effectiveness. However, there is a place in the retail field for other types of commercials. Dual announcer commercials In a dual announcer commercial, two or more announcers alternate on straight copy, speaking directly to the listener (not to each other as in a dramatic commercial) . It is best adapted to slogan advertising or brief sales story advertising that depends on repetition for its success. Transcribed/ dramatized commercials Although few retailers use dramatized commercials exclusively, they have been used by almost every type of retail account. Commercials of this type are exceptionally good attention-getters, they have good audience acceptance, and they have the advantage of a very graphic (mentally speaking) presentation of salespoints. However, they involve talent and production expenses, and take somewhat more air time than the straight commercial to present the same sales story. Sinsins commercials The dividing line between the dramatized commercial and the singing commercial is extremely hazy, for all sorts of hybrids have been tried. The strictly singing commercial is somewhat rare in retail advertising as it is best adapted to reminder type messages, and involves a number of production headaches. Comedy commercials Without doubt, the comedy commercial is among the most difficult to write — and, if correctly handled, among the most effective. They are used almost exclusively within programs, not as spot announcements, and usually within programs of a very light, or comedy nature. They are sugar-coated to the point of actually being part of the show itself, enjoying close to complete audience acceptance. 402 Highly competitive, mass sale products are best adapted to this type of commercial, and in the retail field, those accounts whose policy permits them to get down off their dignity. Left-handed commercials As an off-shoot of comedy commercials, the sponsor is the butt here, and the whole business is handled with reverse English. Ed Wynn's fun-poking at Texaco is a classic example. Hundreds of disc jockeys have taken up where Ed Wynn left off. It can be done — but in 99 cases out of a hundred, don't. Miscellaneous forms occasionally used There are other variations of the straight commercial that deserve a passing mention: the telephone commercial, an offshoot of the dramatized commercial, in which the sales story is handled in the form of a telephone monologue; the testimonial commercial built around a quoted or second voice testimonial; the time signal commercial which uses a time signal for a lead; the 25 word commercial that condenses a sales story into a one-punch knock-out. And then there is the mail-pull commercial, which basically, is little different from the straight variety. However, there are dozens of little tricks of writing that can often mean a difference of several hundred letters a day. In general, the copy is longer and more detailed, with single commercials often running over 200 words. It's friendly and folksy to the point of being saccharine — yet it is plenty highpressure, especially in its action-compelling close. Retailers seldom run into mail-pull copy with the exception of occasional contest and premium offers. The primary thing to remember about contest copy is that the prizes must be sold. It's not enough to just describe them, even as in ordinary product copy. If the prizes are cash, your problem is tougher in a way because people want money for what it will buy — not for itself. Therefore, you have to sell them the things they can buy with the prize money. RADIO SHOWMANSH/P