Sponsor (Jan-June 1953)

on 24-sheet posters (one of Nabisco's favorite medial, in grocery store promotions, and sometimes entire drives arc liuilt around him. Point-of-sale pieces for food outlets include fivefoot cutouts of Godfrey in a blue serge suit, one of which was shot at 1>\ a New England watchman who mistook the cardboard Godfrey for a burglar. Godfre\ merchandising is. ol course, a potent weapon for salesmen, as is Nabisco's network and spot schedule. Oliva. the Nabisco ad director, says salesmen are keen about the TV announcements and are currently carrying around a full-color merchandising poster which includes the roster of products mentioned on the air as well as information about print media insertions. With Nabisco's name and advertising to back them up, salesmen do not make deals for shelf space. I For other sponsor articles on Nabisco see: "'Nabisco: master merchandiser, 19 December 1949, p. 24; "Task force for Milk-Bone," 31 July 1950, p. 23. ) Nabisco's history divides very neatly into three parts, since the two changes in regime following the company's founding coincided with this century's two world wars. Nabisco was put together in 1898 by William H. Moore, who had a hand in a number of big business combinations, among them U. S. Steel. The new cracker company was a consolidation of three companies which were, in turn, consolidations themselves. The National Biscuit Co. dominated the business from the beginning. Moore, however, never ran it. This job was taken over from the beginning by Adolphus W. Green, who became chairman of the board at the outset and took over the presidency in 1905. It was Green who put out the first packaged cracker. The story behind its name goes like this: Green had suggested a number of names to his agency, N. W. Ayer. The agency didn t think much of them and drew up its own list of names. Thev included Hava Cracker. Usa Cracker. Taka Cracker. Lneeda Cracker. Green chose the latter and changed the "cracker ' to "biscuit." Roy E. Tomlinson took over in 1917 and was at the helm during the lush '20s and tough '30s. He began the gigantic modernization program which is still going on. In 1945 George H. Coppers, the current president, took over the reins, and Tomlinson became IN RICH NEW YORK STATE'S SECOND LARGEST MARKET NBC BASIC IN BUFFALO Get the full slor) from HENRY I. ClIBISTAL — New York Chicago -San Francisco BUFFALO EVENING NEWS STATION chairman of the hoard, which he still is at this time. Coppers came to Nabisco in 1920, was made general counsel in 1938. He follows the tradition that Nabisco's executive chiefs are lawyers, not bakers, but Coppers is no respecter of tradition otherwise. The money spent on mechanizing Nabisco's baking processes has reached $90 million in six years and the job still isn't finished. Nabisco expects to improve its competitive position as well as increase its profits through the modernization program. It has cut out quite a job for itself for share-of-business changes come slowly in the cracker business. A shift in five percentage points is a big one and, so far as is known by outsiders, nothing like that has occurred in the past 25 years. Nabisco's big competitors are, Sunshine, United, and Carr-Consolidated. which with Nabisco, are believed to have about 80% of the total cookie and cracker business in this country. There are also about 150 regional and local bakeries, not to mention the bakery store around the corner. • • * NARTB {Continued from page 30) Defense Department officials. Purpose of these meetings was to dispel myths concerning advertising. Following these, the Defense Department presented its own case before Congress, and the budget for the 1952-'53 fiscal year contained no such restriction. The recruitment advertising, in terms of dollars to be expended, was negligible; but the NARTB undertook the battle principally to oppose discriminatory practices against advertising. 4. NARTB s'aff personnel is at the disposal of such administrative agencies as the Treasury Department, Federal Trade Commission, and Department of Defense, and can be called upon by the White House for consultation on advertising and its attendant problems. In these conferences the association strives to combat discriminatory Federal law through the process of educating go\ eminent reps on the effeetiveness and necessity of advertising. 5. The association also works closely with the 38 state broadcasters' associations which are concerned with local and state" legislation involving advertising. The facilities of virtually every 90 SPONSOR