Sponsor (Jan-Apr 1958)

SPONSOR SPEAKS Let's sell optimism Radio and television stations everywhere are doing their bit to dispel recession thinking. A cross-section of stations chiming in with encouraging and tactual reports of better business conditions include \\ \KK. Atlanta; WFBR, Baltimore; KELO-TV, Sioux Falls; WANE, Ft. Wayne; KPHO, Phoenix; WLAC, Nashville; WYDE, Birmingham; WAVI, Dayton; WJTN, Jamestown. Sponsor's concept of "Let's Sell Optimism" is nothing if not factual. We recommend that stations ferret out the bright spots in the communities they serve and pass them along to their listeners and viewers. You'll find that local merchants as well as your audience will love you for it. The NAB Convention issue (26 April) will feature a "Let's Sell Optimism" theme. Back in 1949 and again in 1954 the anti-recession efforts of broadcast stations did much to chase the dark economic clouds away. Recession fear or sound business The Advertising Council took the bit in its teeth last week when it began work on a major anti-recession campaign to change consumer psychology as it had helped to do during the 1954 setback. (See Newsmaker of the Week page 4.) The Ad Council's move underscores once again the importance of the advertising industry in America's economy. This is the year when agency management can rise to the challenge and accept its position of leadership. The question today is: What has agency management done to counteract a recession psychology within its own rank as well as throughout the advertising industry? While the profit squeeze has been a growing problem over the past two years, the danger now exists that some agency heads may use the recession fever as an excuse for wholesale cut-back, out of proportion with current billings. Such a cost-cutting stampede, weakening client services and the structure of an agency, would work against future interests of agenc) management. I For analysis of cost-cutting, see p. 33.) SPONSOR congratulates Grey Advertising's president, Arthur Fatt, for his -la IT memorandum reassuring his personnel aboul the agency's future and outlining its growth pattern. This type of forward thinking will offset recession fears. THIS WE FIGHT FOR: Network radio has regained many of the advertisers it lost in the rarlr '50's (see page 12). Now is the time for the networks to regain prestige by getting together and revealing monthly client hillings. lO-SECOND SPOTS !• Agency type: A \<>ung lady, recently come to New York and hard at work in her first job with an agency media department, was asked if she had made many friends yet. "No," she replied, ''but I've got lots of acquaintances-indepth." Synopsis: From the program log of TV Guide, this description of a movie on WNHC-TV, New Haven, Conn.— "Dangerous Number. (1937) Time approx. After returning from the Orient where he tried to forget his former sweetheart, a handsome New Yorker rushes her away on the brink of her impending wedding and marries her herself." Sounds a little too off-beat for the tv family audience. Showcase: Horace Schwerin, president of Schwerin Research Corp., told Minneapolis Ad Club members that, '"Excellent results can sometimes be obtained from sponsoring a Western, but it is not the easiest type of show with which to harmonize your commercials." Unless, of course, you're in the saddle or shootin' arn business. Bumper crop: When Dee Sweet, of Indianapolis station WISH-TV, goes to the San Francisco convention of Advertising Women in Radio and Television she will have $832 spending money — profits from an acre of Maine potatoes she won at last year's conclave. The Maine Dept. of Agriculture, donors of the prize, packed the crop in 10-lb. bags bearing her name (Dee Sweet Brand), shipped them to Indianapolis. There, Dee herself promoted her spuds in local supermarkets. Proving there's money in farm radio. Keeping her modest: Psyche, the White Rock girl well known in air media, is on display in New York's Grand Central station but is presenting a bit of a problem inasmuch as her white gauze sarong keeps slipping. Every few days watchful attendants haul it up into place again. The sack that failed. Safe: Herb Sheldon, Dumont air personality uses four of his own shows to sponsor his own product — Pop-A-Day Pops, vitaminized lollypops. The best client-talent relationship to come along in a long while. AWOL: On ABC TV's Rin Tin Tin, Benny, a trained rabbit was supposed to run away from Rinty. He did, and his trainer is still looking for him. So that wasnt the Easter Bunny you saw hopping down Wiltshire — that was Benny.