Business: THE SOPHISTICATED SELL

Advertisers' Swing to Subtlety

ADVERTISERS in the U.S., in recent years, have filled newspapers, magazines and television screens with talking dogs and tattooed men, philosophical musings and the Piel Brothers. Though some of this procession represents the extremes of the huckster's art, the pattern reflects a basic shift in the philosophy of salesmanship that has influenced advertising from Madison Avenue to Madison, Calif, (pop. 400). The new pitch: sophisticated selling.

The new 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 are using cartoons to encourage thrift. The low-key sell is not in itself new on the U.S. scene, e.g., JellO, Campbell's Soup and Coca-Cola have gentled readers for decades. But more and more advertisers are taking the position that an ounce of charm can be worth a pound of pressure.

One big 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 go North for Southern Bread."

Does soft-selling sell? Manhattan's McCann-Erickson Inc., after spending $3,000,000 on a study of consumer psychology, now makes wider use of "situational" salesmanship aimed at creating soft-sell personality for the products it advertises. A recent consumer poll established that the average reader finds bragging headlines only 60% as effective as the copy that cajoles or informs. Says a veteran agency executive: "The kid glove can also pack a brick."

Some of the hardest-hitting kid-glove campaigns have been waged on small budgets. Among the most influential ads of the past decade, thanks to Baron George Wrangell of the black eye patch, have been the Hathaway Shirt series; for a modest $300,000 in four years, Hathaway boosted sales more than 65%. Other companies have used sophisticated advertising to transform a product's personality. Since Philip Morris Inc. decided to turn ladylike Marlboro into a "heman" cigarette, its ads have centered on a succession of tattooed male smokers; the brand has in less than a year on the national market become the No. 3 U.S. filter-tip (after Winston, Viceroy).