Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1960)

SPONSOR Well, it was a better year Two years ago, when sponsor editors sat down to prepare our regular late December wrap-up issue, we reviewed the events of 1958, and called it a "rough year." A year ago, summarizing the fateful happenings of 1959 i remember Charles Van Doren?) we called it, with considerable truth, an "explosive year." Today, looking back on 1960, we can find no such colorful adjectives to characterize the past 12 months. But as you will see, in reading the summaries of agency, advertiser, tv, radio, tape, and film activities in 1960 (pages 29-37), it was definitely a better year in every way. Financially, of course, practically every phase of the business showed gains, even though some were slight. Network and spot tv, spot and local radio will go into ] 961 with cheerfully rising sales curves. But the industry's main cause for satisfaction about 1960 does not lie in the area of sales and billings. In our opinion, the best things that have happened in the last 12 months have had to do with the climate and the image I we hate that word, too) of radio and tv. In programing, and in commercial content, there have been tremendous strides made in correcting old abuses and setting higher goals. The Great Debates and the sizable increases in public affairs programs and program sponsorship have been very heartening. Equally satisfying have been the energetic efforts of broadcasters, agencies, and advertisers to improve the qualii\ and content of commercial messages. We particularly want to applaud the work of the NAB's Code Boards, and the ANA and AAAA code committees for \ igorous attention to commercial excesses. And we are proud that 1960 saw the first highly successful American Tv Commercials Festival, which was spONSOR-backed. Reviewing 1960 we see no cause for complacency or industry self-satisfaction. We all have an obligation to make 1961 a year of far greater progress and greater accomplishments. Rut ;it Ica-t we can honestly say tbat radio and tv advertising are in much healthier shape than they were a year I960 has been a better year. ^ lO-SECOND SPOTS Season's Greetings! And in that spirit, may we reproduce what an impartial panel i LO-Sec's editor and his bartender I has adjudged The Best of 1960: Where there's slogans: AnheuserBusch is in court trying to prevent the Freewax Division of Chemical Corp. of America from using "Where there's life, there's bugs!" as an advertising slogan. Too close, says Budweiser, to "Where there's life, there's Bud!" Freewax says it took the line from a John Gay poem of 1770. "While there is life, there's hope (he cried)." Freewax would settle for "Where there's life, you'll find bugs!" Budweiser still objects. How about: "There's a bug in your future" — or, "We're bugmen, not lawmen!" Influence of tv dept.: A sponsor staffer has a 20-month-old cousin, Jenifer Grant, who sits in front of the magic box at news time and answers back. Whenever the tv says. "Lumumba," she shouts, "Kasavubu." Whenever it says, "Mboya," she says, "Nkrumah" (and vice versa to both). What NBC wants to know is: when they say, "Huntley," does she say, "Brinkley?" UNusual: We know an adman who solved the traffic problem in Ne* York during the monumental UN sessions with its Heads of State winging all over town. He hired a big. black limousine, got himself a homburg. and rented four motorcycles i w ith drivers dressed in black jackets, blue pants, boots and blue helmets). His final items were a siren, a little American flag and a little blue, white and green one his wife whipped up on the sewing machine. Police stopped traffic for a week wherever he sped, and his office was picketed for three days by a group that wanted him to get out of Lithuania. Uncomfortable piggyback: Late the other night a N. Y. channel ran the picture of Fugitive #1 along with a recorded announcement in which his mother pleaded. "Please call the FBI and give yourself up. Please, please do this for me." Then followed a quick ID: "Promise her anything, but give her irpege. . . ." SPONSOR • 26 DECEMBER 1960