Sponsor (July-Dec 1954)

It was in the 30'a too, t hilt vast Bwamp areas "I the South were cleared up through both states and Federal help, and Monticello Btopped stressing the anti-malarial virtues <d the 666 Formula. The firm had alreadj found that it quinine contents had proven , tl.-. i i \ ( • iii < in ing colds, and that people had turned to it with such symptoms BOOH aftei World War 1. This fact had opened up ih< possibility <d wide] distribution and all'year advertising for them. It also gave an impetus to Monticello for cracking 1 1 1 * \\ r«i Coast and Northern metropolitan centers. Toda\ Monticello Drug Co. manufactures eight clifTerent products, several size and form variations upon 666, including: 666 Malarial I'repai at mil at 49c: 000 Cold Preparation (liquid) at 30c: 0(>O Cold Tablets i 12 i at 25c; 666 Cough Syrup, (4-oz.) at 59c; 666 Salve, (1%-oz.) at 35c; Rub-My-Tism Antispetic (3-oz.) at 59c. Sonic }>()', of total sales still derive I icmii the two sizes of liquid 666 Cold Preparation. Over 8'/< of sales are in 000 Malarial Preparation, which is promoted separately in special malaria areas during 13-week radio campaigns KWKW ES LA PREFERIDA De Los Latino-Americanos En Los Condados De Los Angeles y Orange — which means — KWKW is the choice of Latin-Americans in Los Angeles and Orange Counties A survey of 696 completed calls made in Spanish to Latin-American names chosen at indom from Los Angeles and Orange County telephone directories showed the following' 1ST CHOICE IN STATION PREFERENCE KWKW 66 1/2% 2ND STATION 7 1 2% 3RD STATION 1 % 4TH STATION 32 3% 5TH STATION 32 3°0 MEXICAN STATIONS 3 °o KWKW Pasadena Los Angeles New York Representative RICHARD O'CONNELL, Inc. at the height ol the malarial season. Dining the jia^t 1(1 years, close to another K)', I ia been coming from (>(>(> Cold Tablets. The other products are not advertised. Virtuall) 95$ of the total budget i~ devoted to promoting the cold remedy, and both the liquid and the tablet form are lumped together as described in the Bample commercial above. Monticello's expansion is anticipated not in terms of products added to the medicinal line only, although experiments continue at the firm's Florida plant. "'What we want to do is to reach more of the same customers we already have," Roberts told SPONSOR, "And we have found that spot radio can spearhead our effort there."' * * * 15% COMMISSIONS [Continued from page 30) ti\es have had years of theatre, movie, radio and television experience, amounting in many cases to more show business training than the actual producers assigned to the show. A measure of the importance the agency attaches to control of a program package is the type of agency supervisor assigned to the show. Erickson recognized the problem when he said : "We can have the finest contracts in the world, drawn by the keenest lawyers, giving us absolute control of our packages but this control will be nothing but a piece of paper if the man we send to service our accounts does not have the stature for the job." This point of view was seconded b) packager John Gibbs, who addressed the same 4A*s meeting. He said : "Control isn't a theory, or a paragraph in a contract. Control is a man. "Take the question of keeping a show sold, a problem that involves the interpretation of ratings, watching the audience trends, the cost per advertising dollar — all those technicalities that actuall) are more than technicalities, rhese require something beyond a statistician, . . . The) must be interpreted, and. as we all know in our calmei and more reflective moments. the) mii-i be taken with a grain of salt and a pound of human understanding. I .'I this \ on need not a calculatoi or a slide-rule artist you need a man. I.atei mi in hi speech, Gibbs said: "There's something weird about sending a $100-a-week boy to tell a $2,500 man how to do his work. There's waste in there somewhere; either of the hundred dollar-, or possibly the $2,500 — depending on who win-. One big factor in the advertise! questioning of how much work the agenc) does in show servicing is the role of the networks. The agencies themselves fear network program creation tend to freeze them out. Even in the case of packages created outside the network-. Erickson pointed out. most of them are network controlled; that i-. the -how cannot be moved to another network. This is because the packager, though he may want to deal directlj with the agency, finds it easier t< do business if he works through the networks. This wa\ the packager finds his wa\ smoothed in getting a time slot, can get capital to make a pilot film or kinescope and also benefits from the network sales staif working for him. One agenc) account executive, working for a client who bought one of the big new show-, complained: "\\ e re fighting the networks like hell to get some sa\ in the program. Those network boys don't seem to want us around. We even have trouble when it comes to commercials. ^ ou should see how thev were going to spot the commercials on one show. If we hadn t stepped in, the) would base run two of them within two-and-a-half minutes of one another. \ producer at one of the top two networks agreed with the letter but not the spirit of the agency man's complaint. "Yes, it's true that producers of the big -how sometimes try and keep the agenc) out. But when you're putting on a book show what's the agency going to contribute? A lot of these book -how are versions of Broadway shows. Once the agenc) and client o.k. the show. the\ can't do much more. The\ can't rewrite it. Oh. the agencies have a voice in some of the I roblems involved in putting the show on. We discuss things with them. But there's not much reason for them to be involved closel) in production. \ man with long experience in the program business cited another facet about agenc) program servicing. "In the halcyon days of radio, he said, "the agencies were reallv creative. Some of the top IV ! housi dav were made bv the talent thev built and the shows thev produced. There 108 SPONSOR