Sponsor (1964)

PROBING THE CURRENTS AND UNDERCURRENTS OF BROADCAST ADVERTISING AHP meets piggyback deadline In the hurley-burley over piggybacks there is one distinguishing feature about American Home Products which will probably spend over $16 million in tv this year: AHP is playing it very cool. When talk first started about stations charging a premium on piggybacks American Home calmly took the position that it would not pay. AHP shows no sign of even an iota of retreat. Unshaken by the "moment of truth" which dawned Sept. 1, American Home has provided its agencies with these clear instructions re piggybacks: (a) if one station wants more money for our "shared commercials," move them to another station in the market without a premium, (b) refrain from any other punitive action against the premium rate station (in other words, don't pull other AHP spots), (c) if the weight of our opposition is too great in a market, quietly drop out of that market completely. Colgate's reaction to the "moment of truth" has been of a somewhat different pattern. It's pursuing a policy of pulling all other Colgate business off any station insisting on premiums for Colgate piggybacks, and also dropping markets wherein all stations have rates or groundrules adverse to piggybacks. Colgate is disposed to refer to such as "locked out situations." The package goods giant last week issued instructions to its agencies to ( 1 ) determine how much money is involved in each abandoned spot tv market and (2) submit as quickly as possible recommendations for other media to which such money can be transferred. Implied in the instructions: give weighty consideration to spot radio. Affected by the initial sweep of the Colgate policy were stations located in Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Grand Rapids and Toledo, with the pullouts numbering five stations. GF embraces NBC-TV after separation Strange things are happening with regard to the transfer of daytime network tv affections bj giant advertisers. First Lever Bros, pulls the residue of its NBC-TV business to buttress its commitment with ABC-TV, and now General Foods is on the verge of returning to NBC-TV after an absence of many years. The flow from General Foods to NBC-TV has the earmarks o\ new budget money. Young & Rubieam is handling the negotiations. P.S.: The new director of broadcast programing at General Foods (and the heir apparent to corporate ad chief Ed Ebel when he retires) is Charles A. Pratt. Before Pratt joined Alberto-Culver four years ago he was a sales executive with NBC-TV in Chicago. Colgate covets ABC-TV's 1-1:30 strip ABC-TV daytime has before it the task of retrieving from affiliates the 1-1:30 p.m. weekday strip. Colgate would like the time for a soap opera of its own. Because the period is station time, Colgate appreciates ABC-TV's clearance problem and is willing to wait until April. Chevy six-minute sell in third go The six-minute opening-of-thc-season commercial has evidently become an annual thing with Chevrolet. There'll be a longie appended to Bonanza for the third consecutive year. The sixminute commercials, coming after 54 minutes of unbroken entertainment, brings together the stars of Chevrolet's various network progams for participation in the exposure of the company's new line of cars and trucks. The series, other than Bonanza, are The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Bewitched. What has basically promoted repeat of the six-minute commercial for Campbell-Ewald has been the pleasing recall score registered among viewers. NBC-TV prefers quiz in daytime shift Never let it be said that NBC-TV moves to the same rhythmic beat as ABC-TV. at least not in the trend of daytime programing. ABC-TV keeps adding to its inventory of soap operas, the latest being The Young Marrieds (3-3:30 p.m.). But NBC-TV remains loyal to the daytime quiz strip, comes the NBC-TV decision to banish Words for Word (10:30-11 a.m.). Rather than replace it with a soaper, the network selected another quizzer, the newcomer called Bust This Song. NBC-TV's first thought was to make the change at > ear's end. but with all ad\ertiscrs in the period approving. Bust This Song debuts Oct. 26. 24 SPONSOR