Good, bad, but never indifferent - those TV commercials | TV Guide Chicago, April 24-30, 1953

COMMERCIALS, like them or not, pay the freight for your television entertainment. As an encouraging sign, sponsors would much prefer that you like them.

Tests have shown that thoroughly-liked commercials outsell thoroughly-disliked commercials, two to one. But either way the product will sell. The only unpardonable sin is to create no reaction at all.

Cartoon Popular

Down in Cuba, a spicy little cartoon commercial for a native cigaret proved so popular the station had to run it over and over to satisfy viewers. Most spon- sors don't hope for that much, but they do try to please you.

You've seen TV commercials. Here are some of the things you may not know about them.

A simple slide, called a "telop," costs from $3.50 up, plus time. A 10-second, fully-animated spot can cost upwards of $2000. Live demonstrations also are expensive. Betty Furness, one of the best-known demonstrators, is making a career and $75,000 a year showing Westinghouse products.

Sometimes, live commercials go wrong. Garbage-disposal units have backfired into the faces of demonstrators, refrigerator doors have fallen off their hinges, ironers have jammed. A dog biscuit was turned down by a disinterested hound. But commercials are as labored-over as an hour-long, all-star review. First the theme is selected, then the budget is set. Spot commercial or sponsored show, length, time and talent available and the type of program are all considered part of the approach to a commercial. Only after these have been decided do conferences between writers, artists, and agency begin.

Campaigns are mapped. Scripts are written and rewritten. The producers take over three weeks before the TV date for a live commercial.

Actors must be cast, music composed, lyrics written, props, staging and lighting worked into the script. Then producers, directors, actors, cameramen, technicians, and electricians go through the motions in a dry run, a dress rehearsal, and finally the performance.

Costs Run High

The cost of all this runs anywhere from $1500 for a single person doing a live demonstration to $15,000 for a three-minute animated cartoon. The average is closer to $3000 or $4000.

An actor receives a minimum of $140.50 for two commercials on a half- hour network show. A new ruling now ups the price of film, requires payment to the actors for each time a commercial is shown. The rate runs $70 per actor for the first showing and $50 for each re-run until a maximum amount is reached. The maximum, however, is limited to 26 weeks.

Sponsors who wander from the conventional pattern of producing commercials sometimes reap rewards. Sometimes they don't. The average half- hour dramatic network show costs $60,000 divided equally between time and talent. Commercials add to the staggering total. Although sales is the goal, the sponsor also wants to play it safe and stay with the tried formulas.