Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1960)

8 AUGUST 22, 1960 Advertising Code in the Chest: N.Y. Code Office dir. Stockton Helif rich last week, in a follow up to a recent report of NAB’s Review Board subcommittee (Vol. 16 :30 p2), resumed his NBC practice of directing witty, albeit prolix, “external memos” to the TV trade. In this first, he aired (among others) these thoughts on bra-&-girdle TV commercials: “Hardly anywhere is the dichotomy in specific areas of subjective opinion more apparent, instant, and lively than in the neighborhood of what some have dubbed the American bosom fetish. Undergarments for the enhancement, containment, simple coverage and/or comfort of the female secondary sex characteristics are displayed in department store windows coast to coast, in all print media and, for some time now, on television. Yet only to my knowledge in the latter, a medium with audience locale and sex & age considerations peculiar to it, has controversy on TV treatment— let alone suitable, i.e., acceptable treatment — ever sporadically fiared up.” Helffrich also reported that in NYCO’s (N.Y. Code Office) few months of existence, his office had: (1) Created “tighter liaison” with network ad copy clearance editors on such matters as depilatory commercials. (2) Been in contact with groups like 4-As, TIO, TvB, etc. (3) Worked with individual broadcasters desiring opinions on program proposals. NAB’s N.Y. TV Code office, now operating temporarily at 380 Madison Ave. (Vol. 16:32 plO), will have permanent quarters in suite 2110 of the Time & Life Bldg., 1271 Ave. of Americas (6th Ave.). The move into the new location— 2 blocks from Madison Ave.’s ad agency center & Svithin easy reach of the 3 TV networks’ hq — ^will be completed by the end of Sept. Warren H. Braren, from Ted Bates, has been appointed asst, to Helffrich. Before he went into agency work, Braren had network experience in production & supervision of such shows as Captain Kangaroo, Laramie, Perry Mason, Rawhide. Ratings down, homes up — ^that’s been the trend for some time among top-rated national winners. Example, from A. C. Nielsen Co.: In Jan. 1955, the No. 1 show was I Love Lucy, with a 49.2 A A rating. In Jan. 1960, the top show was Wagon Train, with a 41.8 rating. However, the Lucy rating represented 15,547,000 homes (316,000 per rating point) as against 18,894,000 homes (452,000 per rating point) for Wagon Train. That’s a gain of 43%, says Nielsen, in terms of what a national A A rating point delivers these days vs. what you got for it 5 years ago. ana’s latest report on newspaper circulation & rate trends for the years 1946-60 (all over-50,000 dailies & Sundays) reports: Circulations are up 11.1% for dailies, 13.2% for Sundays. Rates (5,000 lines) have increased 84% for dailies, 62.9% for Sundays. And rates per million circulation have increased 66% for dailies, 44.3% for Sundays. New TV “image” for cranberries will be fostered this fall by the National Cranberry Assn, to combat any lingering consumer memories of last fall’s weed-killer cancer scare. The NCA plans a 60-min., one-shot network special sometime between late October & Christmas on behalf of its Ocean Spray cranberry products, backstopped by print media. Agency: BBDO. Two stories regarding cooperative-advertising developments may be found on p. 10 column 1 & p. 15, col. 1 of this issue. 1960-$1 2-Billion Year: Elaborating on its Just-under $12-billion prediction for all U.S. advertising expenditures in 1960 (Vol. 16:33 p7). Printers' Ink last week released the full media breakdown for 1960 as compared with the final estimate of 1959 expenditures. Final figures for last year, said the trade magazine, turned up better than the first estimates. This year’s expected $11.9-billion total — $800 million better than 1959 — represents a 7% increase (8% national, 6% local). The breakdown follows : ESTIMATE OF 1960 ADVERTISING VOLUME (BASED ON FIRST-QUARTER ACTIVITY) Expected 1960 Total 1959 Final 1960 vs. Ad Volume Estimate 1959 Medium ($ millions) ($ millions) %Chanae Newspapers (national) $ 900.0 $ 826.2 Magazines 986.0 866.2 + 14 Television (network and spot) .... 1,360.0 1,246.0 + 9 Radio (network and spot) 250.0 248.0 + 1 Business Papers 610.0 669.3 + 7 Outdoor (national) 135.0 130.4 + 4 Other Investments by National Advertisers 2,990.0 2,828.4 + 6 Estimated Total Investments by National Advertisers 7,230.0 6,713.5 + 8 Estimated Total Investments by Local Advertisers 4,680.0 4,403.8 + 6 Grand Total $11,117.3 7 They’re ‘Announcement Carriers’: Objecting to the term “spot carriers” to describe magazine-concept network shows which are sold in participation slices, vp & dir. of research & promotion Daniel Denenholz of rep Katz Agency last week sounded off for a better terminology. “Spot broadcasting,” he said, “by accepted definition, is the use of non-network radio or TV. It is the spotting, or placing, of advertising in selected markets, on selected stations in those markets. In short, ‘spot’ is the name of a distinct advertising medium. It does not define the type or time duration of an advertising message. Accordingly, I submit that the correct phrase should be ‘network participation programs’ or ‘network announcement carriers.’ ” Meanwhile magazine-concept buying is quietly becoming a solidly-entrenched reality among the 3 networks — at least, so far as sponsorship of individual fall programs is concerned. A typical lineup last week was announced by NBC-TV for Laramie, a 60-min. sage-&-sixgun series produced by Revue in co-production with the network. Altogether, Laramie’s corral contains 9 advertisers, almost any one of which a few seasons ago was big enough to support a major TV series all by itself. The list: Dow Chemical Company (Saran wrap) — MacManus, John and Adams. Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. — ^BBDO. Simoniz Company — ^Dancer-Fitzgerald-Sample. National Carbon Co. (Prestone) — J. M. Mathes. The Nestle Company Inc. — William Esty. Colgate-Palmolive Co. ( Colgate) ^Ted Bates. Reader's Digest — J. Walter Thompson. Pan American Coffee Co. — ^BBDO. Ford div. of Ford Motor Co. — J. Walter Thompson. Too little time in TV commercials to spell out just what is meant by a “guarantee” for a product gives advertisers no excuse to deceive the public, warns FTC Chmn. Earl W. Kintner. In a special statement in response to protests by sponsors that they can’t work everything into a 10-sec. spot, Kintner said — in effect — ^that that’s tough. Commercials which claim simply that products are “Guaranteed!”—when they aren’t— just give FTC invitation to bring “adversary action” against the sponsors, Kintner said.