Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1964)

SPONSOR WEEK Leo Burnett Exec Scores Greed, Lack of Creativity Matthews takes Hollywood to task for spiraling tv costs and copy-catism before the Hollywood Advertising Club Hollywood, Calif. — Although he maintained that Hollywood has a "great future" as an advertising and entertainment center, Leonard S. Matthews, executive vice president. Leo Burnett Co., also sees some ominous clouds on the horizon. In a talk before the Hollywood Advertising Club last week, Matthews cited the "limited creativity of Hollywood," copy-catism, viewer irritants and greed as the four principal danger areas. Discussing creativity, Matthews said, "Your best people are not turning out enough new, different, exciting, interesting forms and treatments of television." On copy-catism, the agency executive declared: "You can blame the networks and the agencies if you want, but the real villain is the creative mind. Once one particular show catches on, bingo! — the cookie cutters go to work to turn out duplicates." The antidote for carbon copies, Matthews said, is originality. Shifting his sights to viewer irritants, Matthews argued that "the passive, long-suffering American viewer could just fool us all. He could rebel at the adulteration of the entertainment we are supposed to be delivering to him. He could cut back on his television usage with drastic results for all of us." The Leo Burnett vice president continued: "The viewer is annoyed by 'extraneous' material. He just isn't interested in the interminable creative and technical credits that assault him." Matthews' fourth area of concern was "greed." The costs of television programing are increasing at a dangerous rate, he said. "The demands of creative people, performers, of all the crafts and guilds are apparently based on the mistaken notion that the traffic will bear any price. I must tell you, that isn't so. Our clients put well over $100 million a year in television, and many Matthews . . . "dead geese don't lay." of them are asking hard-to-answer questions about the price rise." Matthews suggested a "hard business look" at advertisers' dollars. "Many advertising dollars are not going into television as they used to. Ask any advertising man you know. They will tell you of several clients who significantly decreased their television expenditures or had to leave tv in the past two years. "Television is big, exciting, effective and efficient," the agency man added. "But, if it continues to take larger and larger bites of the available advertising dollar, and progressively reduces an advertiser's maneuverability and media alternatives — he may just have to take alternatives." Matthews had the following words of caution to "all vendors of television": • Beware that you are not trapped into believing that advertising appropriations are inexhaustible. They are not. • Beware of letting your ego dictate your business dealings. It isn't necessary or wise to constantly want to make more money — than you used to, or than the other fellow may be making today. • Beware of "it's good enough" virus which is epidemic today in every creative field. It is never good enough. It can always be better. Summing up, Matthews said: "Hollywood rose because of motion pictures, and fell, and rose again because of television. For the rise to hold and continue, Hollywood must understand television, and television advertising. Hollywood must knowledgeably feed and wisely care for the goose so that the golden eggs will continue. There is a danger that Hollywood may strangle the goose. And you know, dead geese don't lay." Ogilvy^ Benson 8f Mather Merges with London Agency New York — Ogilvy, Benson & Mather, Inc., currently ranked number 17 among agencies in broadcast billings, last week announced it was merging with Mather & Crowther, Ltd., London. Although the parent firm will be called Benson & Mather, both agencies, now subsidiaries, will continue to do business under their old names. David Ogilvy, chairman of the U.S. agency, will be chairman and chief executive of the new company, while Donald Atkins, chairman of Mather & Crowther, will be vice chairman with special responsibilities for operations in the United Kingdom and in Europe. It was pointed out that the merger means that Ogilvy & Mather will become one of the ten largest agencies in the world, billing SI 30 million in 1964. Ogilvy Benson & Mather will bill $70.3 million in 1964 with $41.8 million in broadcast, almost double 1963's radio-tv spending by the agency. For its part, Mather & Crowther increased its billings over a tenyear period from $8 million to $53 million. Among its clients are Lever Bros., Shell Oil and Triumph Motors, all major tv users. 20 SPONSOR