Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1949)

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SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, November 19, 1949 21 National Ad Barrage for 'Prince of Foxes' CINEMATIC WONDERS OF THE MCHtlD! MAGAZINE ADS GEARED FOR READER APPEAL. Twentieth Century-Fox's national magazine advertising campaign on "The Prince of Foxes" will be geared toward the particular readership of each magazine or newspaper supplement. Ad at top left is for American Weekly and fan magazines; top center, Cosmopolitan; upper right, Collier's, Life, House Beautiful; center, left. Good Housekeeping; center. Parade; center, right, .This Week; bottom, left. Puck Comic Weekly. The campaign, which got under way this week and continues through Dec. 18, will reach 300 million people. Des Moines ^Kiss^ Bow Honors Miller Magazine Camoaign to Reach 300 Million for Christmas Holiday Release Precise timing so as to reach the greatest number of people throughout the nation in one fell swoop is the chief factor in 20th CenturyFox's concentrated national advertising campaign on "The Prince of Foxes," which the company announced more than a month ago (STR, Oct. 1, p. 17). Starting this week and running through Dec. 18, a total of 24 first-line publications will carry the advertising, marking one of the largest national campaigns ever put on by a motion picture company. Some 300 million readers are expected to be reached, with virtually every family in the United States seeing a "Prince of Foxes" advertisement at least four times during the period of the campaign. Penetrating Following the technique that has proved successful in the sale of automobiles, home appliances, dentifrices, razor blades, cereals, etc., the company is laying down the national advertising barrage on a scale so widespread and penetrating that theatres playing the picture need take only their usual advertising space to announce that they will play the picture. Besides the time element, the advertisements have been designed to appeal to the readership of the magazines in which they will appear. Thus those ads in American Weekly and the fan magazines, for example, will have the romantic fiction appeal, while spectacle and intrigue will highlight the Cosmopolitan display. Similarly, the feminine romantic appeal will be prominent in the Good Housekeeping ad, while comic strip narration with melodramatic overtones will attract readers of Puck Comic Weekly, Sunday newspaper supplement. Other publications on the campaign list include Look, Life, Woman's Home Companion, House Beautiful, Redbook, Collier's. Harper's Bazaar, Parade and This Week. Another feature of the riational ads is that they will sell ""Prince of Foxes" as great family entertainment during the holidays. Release of the picture is scheduled for Christmas at a time when the magazines will be in homes and being read. Twentieth-Fox is making available 500 prints of the picture for the national Christmas release date, thus enabling exhibitors to play the film at the peak of the campaign's effect and cash in on the pre-selling job. Circulation Figures To tell the exhibitor of this national advertising campaign, 20th-Fox will break down the circulation figures for every town of 2,500 and over throughout the country, and present this information through large-scale ads in the industry trade press. Exhibitors will then know exactly the circulation of national magazines in their own cities so as to hit the largest audiences when they lay out their own campaigns, as well as to tie-in locally with the magazine and newsstand distributors. In this connection, publishers are notifying their dealers to assist the local engagement of the picture in every way possible. Display material and other exploitation items will be used â– extensively for mutual tieins between the issue carr^ang the advertising and the film's opening. Colin Miller's "A Kiss for Corliss," United Artists release, had its world premiere Wednesday in Des Moines, with the town turning out to honor the local boy who made good. Although Producer Miller is a native of Oak Park, 111., he made Des Moines his adoptive town while working there for years as an executive of the Des Moines Register and Tribune Syndicate. He chose Des Moines for the premiere of his first independent film produced under the banner of Milbak Productions because of his affection for the town and in keeping with the locale of the film, which is set in a "typical midwestern community." Following the premiere, "A Kiss for Corliss" was slated to open in other midwestern cities nearby, all in Iowa. These include Iowa City, Clinton, Ft. Dodge, Mason City, Ames. New . . . and Passes Too Couples caught kissing after midnight in Market Square at Harrisburg, Pa., during the first three days of the run on "That Midnight Kiss" at Loew's Regent, were given free nasses to the film by Manager Sam Gilman. Gilman had no trouble finding wdnners. ton, Oskaloosa, Ottumwa, Waterloo, Sioux City, Cedar Rapids and Davenport. Additionally, Tri-States and Central States theatres have booked the film in Fairbury, Falls City, Grand Island, Hastings and Omaha, all in Nebraska, and in Moline and Rock Island, 111. Miller and F. Hugh Herbert, playwright, made personal appearances in the territory to spark the openings. Both appeared at Davenport, Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo and Des Moines for radio and newspaper interviews, and also appeared before high school and college groups. Over 100 radio stations and 50 newspapers were used in an Iowa-Nebraska advertising campaign. The Des Moines Theatre premiere campaign included the distribution of 5,000 bags of candy kisses on downtown streets, special window displays (Younkers department store featured a series of windows), and contests conducted over two local radio stations and another by a newspaper. 6-Sheeted Sidewalk Fred Lentz of the Athena in Athens, O., plastered six-sheets of "Mighty Joe Young" on the sidewalk in front of the theatre where passersby would be sure to see them.