Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1960)

8 MAY 16, 1960 Advertising No TV Tax, Says AFA: The proposed 1% excise tax on TV commercials to pay for ETV was cited as a major threat “to the freedom of businessmen to tell their story through advertising,” by AFA Pres. C. James Proud, before the Public Utilities Advertising Assn, convention at the Waldorf Astoria. “While advertising has fared unusually well this year on the state fronts — meanwhile taking an unmerciful beating from Washington bureaus and Congressional committees — ^we can expect plenty of action in the state houses in 1961,” said Proud. Other “danger signs” cited by Proud are “discriminatory municipal, state and federal taxes on advertising; state or federal bureau regulations forbidding members of certain legitimate businesses or professions to advertise their services; and promulgation of Internal Revenue Service regulations to disallow certain advertising as a legitimate, tax-deductible business expense.” Continued Proud; “Advertising seeks no special license or privilege in Washington or anywhere else. We ask only to be treated as any other law-abiding citizens engaged in an honest, legal activity . . . But we must not — and will not — ^permit ourselves to be singled out as some sort of noisome pariahs or to become whipping boys for either a tax-hungry government or political opportunists who may use our occasional front-window indiscretions for their headline-hunting hearings.” Important circulation-building strategy among magazines is extensive use of TV-radio advertising, “a sure fast way to reach prospective subscribers,” according to a recent survey conducted by Printers’ Ink. Some specific cases cited: Reader’s Digest has bought heavily into TV (83 markets) ; Curtis Publishing is spending $550,000 annually on spot radio; TV Guide, a major TV spot advertiser, finds that “spots promote specific issues & articles as well as the magazine itself; Life uses the theme “this is the sound of life” regularly in spots on CBS & NBC; McCall’s reported “phenomenal results” from a spot campaign on radio WTOP Wash. D.C.; Look is beginning to rely heavily upon broadcasting media. Magazine executives believe “this is only the beginning of ad strategy destined to become vitally important to the publication industry,” stated PI. Standard TV-radio rate cards are being circulated to stations by the 4A’s. The new formats provide stations with “a uniform, orderly pattern in which to present their rates, mechanical requirements, terms and conditions.” The cards, developed by the organization’s Committee on Broadcast Media, are the first recommended uniform rate circulars developed for radio stations since NAB’s 1946 recommendations and Broadcast Ad Bureau’s 1950 TV forms. “Spot TV Ad Cost Summary No. 27” was distributed to ad agencies last week by rep. firm Katz Agency Inc. It condenses costs in 234 U.S. TV markets. Market rates, listed for night & daytime spots, are broken down into 60sec. & 20-sec. time periods and 1-time, 6-plan and 12-plan campaigns. Ad People: Albert R. Whitman appointed Campbell Mithun pres., succeeding Ray Mithun, co-founder, who will become chmn. . . . Eldon E. Fox named a BBDO vp . . . Henry L. Sparks and Warren A. Bahr named Young & Rubicam vps. TV’s Top 100: TvB last week posted the combined gross time investments in both network (Vol. 16:13 plO) and national & regional spot (Vol. 16:14 p7), of television’s 100 biggest spenders in 1959. The leader: Procter & Gamble with total TV spending of $95,340,352. In the 100th spot: Jacob Ruppert, with a $2,213,820 investment, all in spot. Of the top hundred, 73 used both network & spot; 20 used spot only; 7 went network exclusively. Eighty-seven of the leaders were repeaters from 1958’s top 100 list. Runners-up to P&G: Lever Brothers ($46,853,895), American Home Products ($38,767,078), Colgate-Palmolive ($36,358,414), General Foods ($35,489,721). TV’s top brand advertiser in 1959 was Lestoil with $17,627,120, all invested in spot. Runners-up: Kellogg cereals ($12,932,652), Anacin ($12,625,422), Dristan ($10,763,597), Kent ($10,190,965). * * * Procter & Gamble continues as top network TV advertiser with Feb. gross time billings in excess of $3.6 million, 'TvB reported last week. American Home Products scored second at $2.8 million, followed by Lever Bros. ($2.5 million). The leading brand on network TV in Feb. was Anacin with gross time billings of $779,791. Dristan was second with $759,380. New to TvB’s list of top 15 brand advertisers in Feb. were Renault cars. Union Gas & Motor Oil and Listerine. * * * TV won 55.2% of the advertising expenditures of the top 5 national advertisers in measured media in 1959, reports TvB. General Motors lead the list with $110.1 million spent in gross time & space, advancing from $97.8 million in 1958. Procter & Gamble, TV’s top spender, was second with $105.6 million, compared to $98.5 million in 1958. Gen. Foods, Ford and Lever Bros, rounded out the top 5. Impact of color commercials has been measured for Crosley Bcstg. Co. by a Burke Marketing Research Inc. study. Key finding: In color-TV homes, color commercials are “about 3% times” as effective as b&w commercials. The survey was conducted during a recent 4-week period in the Cincinnati area. About the same percentage of TV viewers in both color and non-color homes (15%) did not remember anything about commercials they had seen. But of those who could recall, twice the number remembered details of programming & commercials in color as compared with b&w viewers, Burke researchers learned. Although the Crosley outlets will increase their colorcasting, there will be “no premium on color rates until color becomes as common in TV as black & white.” Bid for New York’s Spanish market is being made by Schaefer Brewing and WOR-TV (Ch. 9), which launched Theater of the Americas, a feature-film showcase, in prime time (Sun. 9 p.m.) May 8. In a switch on the overseas marketing of U.S. films, the first film in the WOR series was “Dona Juana la Loca,” televised with a Spanish-language soundtrack — but with English titles. Schaefer has bought full sponsorship of the series which will be handled as a once-monthly event. Latest estimates place the Spanish-speaking N.Y. minority, largely Puerto Rican in origin, at about 900,000. Summer toy-sales drive via TV is planned by Colorforms Toys “to take advantage of today’s tendency toward a year-’round market,” stated sales mgr. Lewis Raskin. The Company will maintain its 3-per-week schedule on CBS-TV’s Captain Kangaroo, backstopped by spot TV for the entire summer.