OVER/UNDERRATED
The May/June 1999 issue of American Heritage, contains the magazine's Second Annual Over/ Underrated listing. In this evaluation, a wide variety of experts are asked to name the most overrated and the most underrated idea, event, person or object in their respective category. For advertising campaigns, James Brady, an Advertising Age columnist, splits his vote for the most overrated advertising program. "Where's the beef?" shares honors with "Avis, we try harder." on the grounds that some years later no one can remember what fast food chain used the former message and Avis has remained a second to Hertz. In contrast, "The sun never sets on Willy's Jeep." was Brady's choice for the most underrated campaign. In the toy category, Barbie received the "Too much hyperbole for too little merit" ranking, while building blocks, a favorite of past generations, was now seen as overshadowed by less stimulating products.
RIM's editorial policy has often included a tendency to emphasize the skill of pre-World War II marketers. But "Morning Edition" (National Public Radio, May 5, 1999) reports an egregious blunder in the early 1940s. Buddha Records has just released "Its All So New To Me" by Frank Sinatra with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. This is a collection of amateur-written songs they performed when ASCAP, the Song Writers Association, was boycotting national broadcasters. The marketing mistake was that the program was sponsored by Natures Remedy, a laxative produced by the makers of Tums. That certainly must have appealed primarily to an entirely different demographic than the one Sinatra and Dorsey reached. A RIM editor clearly remembers commercials for Natures Remedy and for a rival Serutan ("natures" spelled backwards). The logic of that latter sales argument still seems dim even at this late date.
J.W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising and Marketing History at Duke University has acquired much of the files at the Wells Richards Green Advertising Agency which closed in 1998. WRG, a very active agency in the 1960s and 70s, was responsible for outstanding campaigns for Braniff Airlines, Alka-Seltzer and Midas Muffler among others.
The library has awarded 14 academic grants for 1999-2000. These have all gone to graduate students and faculty outside business and marketing. Why aren't we involved in any of these projects along with sociologist, historians and journalists? The center plans to make its collection of World War II Liberty Loan posters available through the internet sometime during Summer 1999. The planned exhibit will show a movement from a rather soft sentimental approach at the beginning of the United States participation in the war to a more realistic view by 1944.
The History of Advertising Trust (England) reports further development and growth of its on-line catalog. It may be searched by title or author for books and by brand name, subject or keyword for collection descriptions. The address is: www.hatads.org.uk. The History of Advertising Trust newsletter recalls that in 1899 tram (streetcar) and bus tickets became an advertising medium for humorous commercial messages. The argument was that public mass transit was then being patronized by the "comfortable classes" (obviously a good market) as well as by their "humbler cousins." The tickets had to be retained for the entire ride. A sample ad showed a suitor on his knees proposing to a non-responding young lady. The message said something to the effect of "if she despises your suit, go to blank and get a new one." (joke).
BUILDING WEALTH
Marketing historians may not need economist, Lester Thurow's advice on "building wealth," Atlantic Monthly, June 1999, but they will find many interesting perspectives there. Thurow holds that the third industrial revolution (the First was steam power, the Second electricity, and the Third, information technology) has changed the rules. Individuals cannot become wealthy by saving. They may become comfortable or affluent, but real wealth creation requires innovative exploitation of disequilibria. Technological change itself is an important source of disequilibrium. It creates many prosperous consumers, not adequately served by earlier suppliers. Industrialized nations, especially the U.S., have greatly enlarged their prosperous, conspicuous consumer classes even while heightening economic insecurity for many. Thurow cites the growing number of billionaires (1000 mil) in the U.S. and the new prosperity of senior citizen groups. This has created new markets for luxury cars, $2.50 coffee bars and cruise travel. Thurow believes firms have done a terrible job of dealing with the labor market while handling product/service opportunities skillfully. Emphasis on downsizing and outsourcing as means of adjusting human resources to immediate market needs has greatly reduced investment in training and the creation of career ladders. Consequently, employees often have little hope of lifetime association with a single company. Thurow feels workers have little incentive for fully investing in their entry level jobs because their career within the employing firm will not advance and yet firms do not help hard workers move away. In fact, in a litigious society inter-company employee references are often limited to mere neutral certification of prior employment dates without any evaluation. In some ways this is an article you hope your students will never read and yet in some ways it may be sobering truth.
MARKET IMPRESSES IMPRESSIONIST
Edgar Degas, the great French impressionist painter, is perhaps best known for his studies of ballet dancers and horses. His only visit to America, and the only visit of any leading French impressionist, came in 1862 when he undertook a lengthy trip to stay with family in New Orleans. Degas anticipated that the colorful, multi-ethnic nature of the city would inspire great productivity but things did not work out that way. He mainly produced portraits of his large extended family. The one aspect of New Orleans that ignited his artistic talents was the cotton commodity exchange. It induced some of his greatest work. During summer 1999, the New Orleans Museum of Fine Arts mounted an exhibit of the largest collection of Degas' New Orleans paintings ever assembled in one place. It included the famous "The Cotton Office," a scene in a cousin's brokerage office. The painting is misleading since it seems to depict a prosperous beehive of activity while the brokerage was actually filing for bankruptcy. In fall 1999, the exhibit moves to its only other venue, Coppenhagen.
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