Fox Ad Campaign Seeks ‘Alternate’ TV Image

It smacked of a scene from a made-for-TV movie. On one side of the table: top officials from a new television network. On the other side: nervous advertising executives. Their mission: to create a once-in-a-lifetime ad campaign.

Ideas flew back and forth. But one elaborate scheme caught the network chairman’s attention. He minced no words. “We don’t have the money and you don’t have the brains to make that one work.”

That chairman: Barry Diller, chief executive of Fox Inc.--owned by Australian media baron Rupert Murdoch and parent to Fox Broadcasting Co. Last week, Fox Broadcasting awarded its $15-million advertising account to the Los Angeles office of ad firm Chiat/Day.

The network--which so far has banked its image almost entirely on Joan Rivers--is about to expand its programming. And less then two months from now, Fox is scheduled to roll out its premiere national advertising campaign. NBC, ABC and CBS will watch like hawks to see how the television network that hopes to compete with the majors wags its promotional tale.

Fox will try to distinguish itself in ads as the “alternative” network, said Jamie Kellner, president of Fox. The new network must prove to the industry that it is not the United States Football League of network television.

“It’s a classic case of introducing a new brand in an established market,” said UCLA professor Dominique Hanssens. “Fox must show it will offer something that the current networks don’t.”

Unlike the other networks, which spend almost all their money promoting their shows, Fox must also spend a big chunk promoting itself. Surprisingly, Fox says, two of the major networks are considering carrying Fox promotions.

Also, unlike its competitors, Fox will not be known by initials. It has designed a logo that spells out Fox and includes portions of the logo from its parent, 20th Century Fox. “Fox has a tremendous entertainment history,” said Gene Cameron, executive vice president of corporate marketing at Chiat/Day. “So why not use that history in its logo?”

The network has kept mostly mum about its program lineup--one expected to include a number of provocative situation comedies aimed at a young, upscale audience. Among them, George C. Scott will star in a show called “Mr. President.” Fox also plans a bid for Monday Night Football.

On April 5, Fox will begin three hours of daily programming and will expand to 10 hours by late spring. Fox has spent $3.4 million positioning and promoting “The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers,” an alternative talk show. “The Late Show” is watched by only 2.6 million households--fewer then half the viewers of the “Tonight Show.” But more than two-thirds of “The Late Show’s” viewers are women 18 to 34 years old. That is a dream audience for many advertisers.

Promoting Fox as a network, however, may be a waste of time and money, said Cy Schneider, president of the Los Angeles office of the ad firm Bozell, Jacobs, Kenyon & Eckhardt. “All viewers care about are the shows; they don’t care what network they’re watching,” he said. “People who like Joan Rivers will watch her whether she’s on ABC, CBS or Fox.”

Pitch From Doctors

If the ad featured a gardener giving a plug for a lawn mower--or even an auto mechanic selling a ratchet set--it wouldn’t warrant a second look. But a surgeon hyping operating room equipment?

“We expected to have more difficulty finding surgeons to do the ad,” said Bruce Kaump, partner at Maher Kaump & Clark Inc., the Los Angeles ad firm that created the unorthodox campaign for Bard Electro Medical Systems Inc., a Denver-based manufacturer of electrosurgery equipment. “But the first three we contacted agreed to do it.”

The doctors’ pitches have been placed over the last few months in industry trade magazines. Among the pitchmen are the chief of urology at Denver General Hospital and the director of surgical oncology at Grant Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio.

Each ad features a picture of the surgeon, photos of the equipment in use, and descriptions--in the doctors’ own words--of how they use the equipment. Some of the surgeons’ statements “had to be toned down,” said Greg Barrett, director of marketing at Bard.

The American Medical Assn. does not frown on this sort of advertising, said B. J. Anderson, associate general counsel for the Chicago-based association, “if the claims can be supported.”

First for a Beatle

How do you bag a Beatle?

With a phone call and several million dollars. That’s what it took last month when Canandaigua Wine Co. of Canandaigua, N.Y., convinced former Beatle drummer Ringo Starr to become the first member of rock music’s most famous foursome to endorse a commercial product.

The company wanted a classic rock star to represent its new wine cooler, Sun Country Classic. At first, Sun Country considered stars like Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger, said Howard R. Jacobson, marketing director at Canandaigua. “When we finally got to talking about the Beatles, we all just kind of laughed and figured that’s impossible.” Jacobson said.

But Ringo’s name kept coming up. “We never thought we’d land a Beatle, but then we figured we’d have nothing to lose by calling.” So they phoned his Los Angeles agent, John Hartman.

Indeed, they discovered, Ringo was eager to give a little help to his friends--at least for the right price. Starr’s contract is in the “low seven-figure” range, said Gerry Caro, Sun Country brand manager. Starr also has a new album that is scheduled to be released soon. And the publicity wouldn’t hurt. The $40-million television and print campaign is scheduled to break March 1.

“It’s a real coup to get a Beatle,” said Hope Hening, editor of Marketing Though Music, a marketing newsletter published by Rolling Stone. “A lot of their music is just now being re-issued and it’s almost as if they’re a new band again.”

Headline Cleaned Up

“What makes the new Grand Am so damn grand?”

Darned if General Motors wants to answer that question. So it will soon put an end to a month-old ad campaign asking that question, when next month it changes the headline for the ad, chock-full of facts on the Grand Am. It will say: “Test read the new Grand Am.”

The first one “was an attention-getting headline,” said John Conroy, account executive at W. B. Doner & Co., the Detroit-based ad agency that created the original campaign, entirely paid for by Southern California Pontiac Dealers. But now, General Motors is about to pump money into the campaign, and it will have nothing to do with the provocative headline. Said a spokesman for GM’s Pontiac Division: “It is against corporate policy to run any swear words in our copy.”

Another Aussie Star

If Paul Hogan can’t convince you to visit Australia, maybe Olivia Newton-John will.

At least, that’s what the Victorian Tourism Commission of Australia hopes. Like Hogan, Newton-John will donate her time to a $2-million ad campaign. But she will still reap some side benefits, said Jack Rasterhoff, director of tourism for the state of Victoria. Part of the commercial was filmed in Koala Blue, Newton-John’s Australian import shop on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. “It was sort of a trade-off,” Rasterhoff said.