Sponsor (July-Dec 1951)

by BOB FOREMW Last month this publication gave brief moment to the fact that a disk jockey operation was available for television sponsors. With so much (justified ) interest in anything that can provide television programing of a sound nature at less than a king's ransom, I thought I might enlarge upon this availability since I happened to be in on the beginning of this venture and played a minor part in exposing it to an advertiser who immediately bought it for several markets. In the first place Screen Gems I the producer, a Columbia Pix subsidiary ) set out to do the necessary in a coldblooded wax translate radio >liskjockeying into television at minimum cost. Rightly, they assumed (as did no other filmmaker, to the best of my know ledge I thai the music-on-the-disks is the thing on these shows. The audiences like their tunes the way they get 'em from the juke boxes; that is, rendered by the best bands, vocalists, and with the actual arrangements that make the number what it is. In other words, the Foreman Octet doing '"Come-Ona-My-House" would not be an acceptable bit of audio. Either you have Rosemary Clooney, or you forget the whole thing. So Screen Gems decided to add video to the best recordings, both standards and new releases. Naturally, they couldn't use the recordings themselves as sound track (you've run into unions, I in sure l : hence they developed simple, inexpensive visualization to go it ilk the platters in a manner that could easily be synchronized. The result is, for example, a tap dancer doing a Chattanooga Shoe Shine Hoy routine around a big shoe-shine chair with a stylized backdrop to go along with the popular Pee Wee Hunt recording. No vocals *are visualized as such — merely danced to. By means of uncomplicated sets and pleasant routines, the \ideo enhances but doesn l overpower the recordings themselves. Furthermore, the cost doesn'l overpower the advertiser. You can routine the "visualizedtunes" an) wa) you want. What Wild root is wisely doing is putting a disk jockey on camera between the numbers to make with the ad libs — small talk business and a lead-in to each film plus the commercial. Figure three films to a 15-minute program, and you've just the right amount of time left for intro and sign-off, for commercial, and for your platter-man to add his own particular brand of whimsey. Screen Gems basically is out to sell these films directly to the channels so they can program shows to fit their own schedules as either participations or single-sponsor ventures. But I daresay some markets are still open for those advertisers, if any, who want to call the tune their own way. The price per film, including the recording, varies according to the market, but $50 is tops, as I understand it, and you can re-run the ditty as often as you like within a 52-week period. In one town I recall that it costs as little as $280 to build an entire 15-minute show. While you won't have a segment of show biz to rival the Sid Caesar-Imogene Coca extravaganza, for a low-cost, young-audience, local venture, this disk-jockev approach to TV seems to make real sense. * * * SPONSOR: T-o/ovo Watch Company AGENCY: The Biow Company, N. Y. PROGRAM: One-minute announcements If you've seen Buster Crabbe swimming right at you in his Bulova chain break, you needn't be told about the drama that can be achieved when live film is done right. As Crabbe places his arms up on the pool's edge, in extreme elose-up, you see that he's I i en m\ miming with hi> Bulova Water-Tile on, and you get the idea that it's waterproof in a jiffy. The realism of this spot is (wisely!) carried out to the fullest with Crabbe talking right from the pool's edge, and the sound has enough echo and splash to it to convince you thoroughly thai Crabbe is really "on location." Slick production and fine writing make this as effective a commercial as any I've caught to date. SPONSOR: Birds Eye Frozen Foods AGENCY: Young & Rubicam, N. Y. PROGRAM: 20-second chainbreak Whether or not the change in Birds Eye films that I witnessed recently was economydictated or not, economy certainly was achieved. From an animated series of lipsynchronized spots, Birds Eye has swung around to a 20-second spinach epic that rel:es mainly on a series of stills in line drawing, each rising out from the other, while a clever sound track tells the story. This track, by the way, is worthy of elucidation. In place of the usual man or woman announcer, a group of youngsters delivered the copy, fast in pace, easy to understand, and not overly coy as might be imagined. SPONSOR: Chesterfield Cigarettes AGENCY: Cunnir.gham & Walsh, N. Y. PROGRAM: N. y. Giant baseball games, WPIX The Birds Eye quickie above reminds me what amazing short cuts are being made by big-time national advertisers these days in their search for production-economy. The end result in many cases is just as satisfactory as the most costly commercials; another prime example of the use of stills (on a strip of film in this case) being Chesterfield's copy for the N. Y. Giant baseball games. For the myriad commercials used in the course of a nine-inning ball game, Chesterfield utilizes single-frame stills with popens and jerky (but effective) zooms. Here motion is achieved at minimum cost. Since the voice is live (the ball game announcers themselves handling the audio), I daresay Chesterfield's between-inning copy costs as little as $100 per film. SPONSOR: Post's Rice Krinkles AGENCY: Foote, Cone & Belding, N. Y. PROGRAM: One-minute announcements This cold cereal dishes up a bit of product identification by use of the character on its package, matching the little cartoon figure from box cover into an animated sequence ("You will have a circus eating Krinkles"). Thus the attention of all is focused on the product and held there. A live middle segment follows featuring clowns lipsynchronizing the Krinkle alma mater and adding further interest. If my kids are any criterion, this spot is easy to remember, pleasant to watch, and builds a real desire for the product. 44 SPONSOR