European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 20, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes sunday. December 30. 19b7 George will getting the message across Ever where you go you Are flipping faster and faster through time Magazine racing to get past the grim stuff Sto Ries about the Iran Iraq War and Raisa Gorbachev s manners to the Safe Haven of the Back of the Book. Suddenly As you turn a Page a bottle of Brandy jumps up and bites you on the nose. It is Only a folded paper pop up replica of a bottle and in does not really bite although that is not from Lack of trying trying Loo hard is the spirit of contemporary advertising. Many a Reader has been startled out of a year s growth by these advertisement that lurch up from ambush in magazines. They arc like the pop up Bun Nies of children books. Hop Tor grown acres troika on Madison Avenue. Ordinary advertising is losing its Power to get Atten Tion and shape appetites. This matters. America is a nation inured to the temptation of Thrift but Advertis ing is nevertheless important in keeping the Money moving in consumer spending which accounts for s3 trillion of our $4.5 trillion Economy. Part of the problem is advertising clutter. The topical american is exposed to approximately 3,000 commercial messages from newspapers to Bill boards a Day. It is said the average american spends a year and a half of his life watching television commercials. The number of messages transmitted by broadcast and print Media doubled Between 1967 and 198?. And May double again by 1997. The sense of clutter is especially intense on television. Because 30 seconds of prime Lime can Cost an Jim Fain advertiser hundreds of thousands of dollars in the 1950s you could Nin an Pic Long la 60-Sccond com Mercial the Suddard length then for $15,000there is a shift to 15-Sccond formats. Add to the regular commercials the five second net work promotions and it is not surprising that viewers led abused. They can be bombarded by upwards of 50 messages in a prime time hour. Bui they can fight Back. Half of America s households have Vars. Viewers can rent without commercials or they an tape network entertainment and hit the fast for Ward Button when the commercials appear. Television sets have Remote enl oils Lylial enable viewers to mute the two minute commercial and no Here comes the staccato future on Japa Nese and european programs there arc 7.5-Sccond commercials. Thai is Long enough for reminder advertisements of products As familiar As say coca cola. To make the most of whatever hold they gel on our attention some advertisers arc melding commercials coca cola which owns Columbia pictures has advertised a movie within a soft drink commercial. Miller Lite has advertised Itsel fas jus the stuff to Wash Down frito Lay products. Some television commercials Are avoiding hum Mable jingles thai hymn the glories of say an antacid. Instead they arc using Odd noise droning panting buzzing and other sounds that psychologists say can trigger emotions and stimulate cognition. And there Are Zany ads the bar of soap that foams in a Man s pocket the Isuzu ads that Label inc Pitchman a liar. Most amazingly some advertisers have fallen Back on language Plain words to communicate. These toss is More ads put words on the screen no pictures. What will they think of next new places to Pul advertising that s what. Alternative Media Are gelling a growing slice of the nearly $100 billion spent annually by american advertisers. Advertisements Are appearing on parking meters ski lift Lowers bus shelters supermarket shop Ping cans on closed circuit television in supermarkets on giant television screens at baseball Parks on Mobile billboards towed by trucks through City streets As Lead in segment on movies rented for Home use. On or Lei rank menus on the stall doors in restaurant restrooms in dentists offices in hospitals in doctors lounges and even doctors scrub rooms. The advertisements there arc for financial services. One docs Hope that while scrubbing the surgeons Are thinking of things other than their Stock portfolios. Maybe most of this advertising is audible and visual wallpaper there but not noticed. The increasing desperation of the barrage suggests advertisers Annie tics about diminishing Impact. One shudders to think about what they will try next. Perhaps magazines soon will have pop up contraption that grab readers by the lapels and hold on for however Long it takes for the average Reader to recover from the Shock and read the text celebrating the Brandy. It will be enough to drive you to drink which is come to a link about it. The idea Cwashington Pom write Ali g Nup Only inner Washington is duped by Media hype gloomy oracles of the right George will Evans i Novak Howard Phillips it at think the great unwashed have been seduced by the mos cow Slicker. They know the eur missile treaty of itself is Small Beer but fear we yokels who Lack their astuteness Are now so euphoric Aslo insist on unilateral Dis show inc opposite. Most Ameri cans see Gorbachev As a or virtuoso wholly dedicated to his country and sys tem. Far from trusting him with their Best China they expect him to Feather his and the soviet nest but Are cautiously optimistic his Domestic problems May offer an opening to better relations. Without giving away the store they see no harm in probing for verifiable arms cutbacks. The Only people taken in seem to be the inner Washington Finger bowl Wield cars led by head Pooh Bah Reagan himself though not Nancy who bears her Pri vate Cross in Raisa. Gorby cannot match our old master s violin in a set speech but he s not afraid of the press and can free wheel without Cue cards. He is nimbler smarter and More energetic. He Cut quite a Swath inside the Beltway but outside there s no Rush to buy soviet Bonds. Those who live by hype truly fear in. Our Nail biting tories perhaps because they know their Raja was built of smoke and mirrors distrust democracy. They forget we be been Here before without losing our Heads. Not so much when the Ull Imale cynics Nixon and Kissinger Brezhnev and Gromyko joined in their Brief menage a quatre As when Nikita Khrushchev in his time fully As impressive As Gorby barnstormer inc country. That memory is dimmed now by a later Khrushchev shoe pounding and defiant who was frustrated by rising opposition Al Home the u-2 fiasco and an unexpected earthquake of reversals in Africa. Before his world started to sour Khrushchev was a formidable Pitchman. I covered his . Odyssey curtain to curtain. Terror was not yet a political weapon and he was Able to Campaign ast Stefi la a or of Zzz a if the . Were a county fair. We had t fully shaken off mccarthyism so Many . Leaders sought Brownie Points by insulting him. He fought Hack. By the time we left los Angeles for san Francis co he was ready to press the flesh. He stopped the Tram Csc Rytie he saw a crowd. Once he got Oil without Security. His Boston Brahman escort Henry Carol Lodge had his coat shredded try ing to shield him. Nikita delighted the crowds whether laying waste a supermarket in a Insco suburb or tossing cow chips Al photographers on the Garst farm in Iowa. He exuded earthy Charm and delighted in its effect. You could we his face Start to react again when the crowds warmed to his translations. His wife Nina was 3 dumpling unlike Kaisa. But was warm with pc aunt kindliness. People took to her. The american Public was pleased and cautiously optimistic just As it is now but nobody sought to beat tanks into Sta Tion wagons. Only inner Washington thinks history dances Tike a jumping Jack. Because it s become such a calculating theater of Media manipulation it no longer is Able to distinguish Between illusion and reality. Don t fret about the american people you trembling Trouba Dours of the Radical right. Stop patronizing Middle America and go to school on it. Your Publ pm is that Normal Peop e understand what s happening with far More clarity and common sense than you do
