Word: admen
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...look and listen in advertising recognizes that the U.S. consumer in 1956 is bettereducated, better-traveled and better-paid than ever. Says a Cleveland merchandising manager: "There are no more yokels." Instead of bludgeoning the customer with razzle-dazzle headlines and ranting copy, admen are buttonholing him with quiet humor, soft talk and attractive art. On the heels of the hard sell spieler comes the shaggy dog who converses with Friend Joe on the merits of rum, and the shaggy Schweppesman who will drink anything plus tonic. Kangaroos sell airline tickets; giraffes promote Ethyl; Mr. Magoo plugs beer. Banks...
...reason for the change is the vastly increased barrage of U.S. advertising ($9 billion in 1955, v. $3.4 billion in 1946). Says a Los Angeles agency executive: "We are suffering from fatigue of believability." To revive the customer, admen are turning increasingly to sotto voce selling: the eye-catching picture, the self-deprecating cartoon, the chuckle. Says one character: "I was a 99-lb. weakling. Then I bought a Carrier Room Air Conditioner. I'm still a 99-lb. weakling but, boy, is my bedroom nice and cool!" In Atlanta a cartoon colonel declares: "I'd even...
...Some admen contend that the soft-sell approach can succeed only in limited luxury-class markets, that keenly competitive mass-marketed goods still demand fact-filled, reason-why copy. Says an old Madison Avenue slogan: "The more you tell, the more you sell." On the other hand, understated advertising has successfully sold many items, from dogfood to diapers, in mass-market fields where there is little discernible difference between competing products. Instead of lecturing readers on engine-ping, Standard Oil Co. (Ohio) diverts them with spaceship cartoons. George Gobel's fey, sophisticated humor has helped to build Dial soap...
Stoutly denying that it was guilty of any of the Government's charges, the A.A.A.A. agreed to end the requirement that members collect a 15% commission and its ban against rebates, and stop policing the industry. To admen, A.A.A.A.'s concessions will mean little. The 15% commission is not all profit, but covers the costs of preparing copy, researching markets, planning layouts, advising on public relations, and a score of other important selling services. For many an agency profits run about ¾% of billings; with that little margin nobody expects the advertising agency to revert to big-scale...
...necessities of ward politics and immigrant life, just as the new TV-conscious politician is shaped by the realities of mass education and mass sophistication. Both types can be corrupt, but the most corrupt thing in politics remains the destructive, naively cynical idea that all politicians are crooks-or admen...