Sponsor (Nov 1946-Oct 1947)

The men who are responsible (or Bab-O's top spot in dollar sales among household cleansers are shown to the left. Sam Mendelson, chairman of the board and executive vice president, is at top. Another Mendelson, Alan, Babbitt president, is directly below. Third in the panel is L. J. Gumpert, sales manager, who has sold the Bab-O advertising on the firing line. Robert Brenner, advertising manager, is number four on the successful Bab-O sponsor team. story." but Duane Jones and Bab-O have proven. as did G. W. Hill, that it doesn't pay off. Tell one story Tell it tune and time again and it will be believed, dive the story the factor of truth and you have an unbeatable combination, like Djane Jor.es, Babbitt, and broadcasting. Although it should be the simplest thing in the world to ascertain the number ol cases that products like Bab-O and its number one competitor, Old Dutch Cleanser, sell, that bit of information is held the most confidential of all the "trade secrets." As one Bab-O exec phrased it. "we don't want to give any firm anything to inspire sales drives." Of the Jones-Babbitt-broadcasting trio. the factor that's due to change most in the next few years is broadcasting. At the moment it's only audible entertainment plus audible advertising. Before Bab-O's next 20,000.000 cases (5 years) clean up the homes of the nation, broadcasting will also include FM, TV and Fax 'see The Big Four, page 22) From an advertising point of view. FM is no great problem. It will be simpler to integrate into any firm's merchandising plans because an exact undistorted coverage area will be known and sales plans can be designed to cover each area where a station can be heard. TV, next of The Big Four to come, however, adds visual appeal to sound and that is still, programwise and advertising wise an uncharted land. Duane Jones knows that, so last month Bab-O telecast its first show in association with the American Broadcasting Company and WABD (DuMonti. Bab-O used a tested program. Ladies Be Seated (It had been telecast over WRGB, Schenectady] and added a premium for the usual Bab-O label and 25c. Despite the fact that the program had the toughest TV competition on the air, Standard Brands Horn (>lass. it pulled over four per cent of the sets in use in actual premium requests. The air selling wasn't as smooth as it might have been but Walter Ware. Duane Jones TV director, hasn't stopped smiling yet. The returns proved to the Babbitt organization that they'll be able to hurdle the visual air problem when the sets-in-use justify their etherizing pictorially. It also justified a typical Duane Jones party. Every time Duane Jones throws a party for a client, an ad-friend out of his past, or a staff member whom he's just upped to a position of authority, he sings a paraphrase of a song out of his cap and gown days: "They say that the evens They ain't got no style; They got style all the while, All the while For the word "evens" he substitutes the name of the guest of honor. One of these days he'll throw a party for daytime serials and premiums and he'll sing "his" song soirething like this 'with a bit of a stutter here and ther?) — "They say that Serials They ain't tot no style, but Premiums ha\e style all the while. All the while." And his entire organization will, with a bow to B. T. Babbitt who started Jones in business for himself, tell the world. "Let's not talk advertising, let's talk arithmetic." for it's simple radio arithmetic that's selling package goods for Bab-O and all the 31 accounts that make the Duane Jones billing SI 2.000.000 plus. The Blarney Stone pendant (left, above) turned the spotlight on premium practices of Duane Jones and Bab-O. Though not the business promoter that less romantic offers have been, the Egyptian "Bond of Love" scarab pin, pulled 330,000 labels and quarters SPONSOR