Wayne Grytting

 

Advertisers Becoming
Literate

Major advertisers are "changing
the rules of magazine publishing," reports the Wall
Street Journal, by breaking down the walls separating ads
from editorial content. Now a number of corporations are
demanding written summaries of articles before submitting
their ads. Recently, Chrysler sent a letter to Esquire,
and 100 other magazines, informing them, "In an effort
to avoid potential conflicts, it is required that Chrysler
corporation be alerted in advance of any and all editorial
content that encompasses sexual, political, social issues or
any editorial content that could be construed as provocative
or offensive." I particularly like that "could be
construed" part. Countering critics who worry about
freedom of the press, Pentacom CEO David Martin points out
the reasonableness of advertisers’ demands because,
given ads that cost $22,000 a piece, "you want it
surrounded by positive things." Esquire certainly
agreed. After receiving their letter from Chrysler, they
canceled a scheduled story with a gay theme. — (WSJ 4/30)

 

Mr. Bojangles Goes
Corporate

Bob Dylan and a host of rock performers
have discovered a new direction for their talents: private
concerts for corporations. Carly Simon has done three shows
for conventions of Merril Lynch stockbrokers, while Dylan,
the Eagles, and Crosby, Stills and Nash were off entertaining
the financial analysts from Nomura Asset Capital Corp. Even
younger bands like Gin Blossoms and Toad The Wet Sprocket
have been jumping on the corporate gravy train, which often
pays three times what bands can make from a regular concert.
While critics complain about the counter culture being ripped
off "as a dividend for a company’s sales
reps," supporters say that such cynicism is out of step
with the 1990s when groups like the Rolling Stones are doing
commercials for Microsoft. For those who blanch at the
thought of CEO’s setting the song list for an artist
like Dylan, there are these words from Nomura president Ethan
Penner. "I am not here paying someone a lot of money to
amuse themselves—they are here to amuse me." Smile
big, Bob. — (WSJ 4/28)

 

Che Guevera Is Back

Cuba’s major revolutionary export,
Che Guevera, is back in vogue with a best-selling memoir, and
several biographies and movies coming out about him. This is
a result of the fact that, to quote the NY Times,
"his image has become more vivid, complex and
commercial." For example, Raichle Molitar, distributors
of Fischer’s Revolution Skis, is holding a Che
look-a-like contest to sell their skis. Explained
spokesperson Jim Fleischer, "We felt that the Che
image—just the icon and not the man’s
doings—represented what we wanted: revolution, extreme
change." This corporate pursuit of revolution, just the
icon and not the reality, is also helping to sell Swatch
watches and even ash trays. All of this commercialization has
left Cubans somewhat mystified, but then they don’t live
in the "free world." — (NYT 4/30)

 

Balanced Environmentalism

Are you worried that our young are
receiving an "unbalanced" view of the environment?
Well, so are state officials in Texas. Like many critics of
environmental education, they are concerned about children
being "scared green" by textbooks and the media.
Conservative author Michael Sanera warns, "Children are
getting slogans and dogma instead of being taught to think
critically." To correct this problem the Texas Natural
Resources Conservation Commission sponsored a conference for
educators to help them present more balanced accounts of
environmental problems. Invited to address them were experts
from Exxon and the state’s leading oil and chemical
corporations. In fact, to make sure all viewpoints were
heard, all of the state’s major polluters were invited.
To ensure that only objective information was presented,
activist environmental groups were excluded. — (WP
4/22)

 

Teen Smoking Going Up

Recent studies have shown a marked
increase in teen smoking, a fact critics are quick to blame
on cigarette advertising. But according to the NY Times,
industry officials say these critics "grossly exaggerate
the effect of their marketing." What, after all, is a
mere $4.83 billion in ads going to accomplish? Fortunately,
the tobacco industry has found another culprit. It turns out
a major cause of increased teen smoking, according to them,
is the anti-smoking campaign. This happens because teenagers
are "naturally rebellious against efforts to stop them
from smoking." Meanwhile, Andrew Schindler, president of
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, testified under oath that smoking
cannot kill. This good news was followed by Schindler’s
shocking revelation that smoking is no more addictive than
coffee or carrots. "Carrot addiction?" asked an
unbelieving attorney. "Yes,’’ Schindler
answered. "There was British research on carrots."
Crisis hot lines are opening now for you carrot addicts. —
(AP 4/21, NYT 4/20)

 

More Help for CEO’s

Those of you who were out celebrating
the news that pay for CEO’s rose a whopping 55 percent
last year may have missed a smaller item about another side
of executive compensation—moving expenses. Newly hired
company presidents often face tremendous expenses moving
their families from one city to another. That is why they are
given relocation expenses. For example, new Banker Trust CEO
Frank Newman was given $1.1 million to cover expenses in
moving from Washington, DC to New York, while Times Mirror
CEO Mark Whiles was paid a "housing differential
allowance" of $871,855 to cover the difference in
housing costs between Minneapolis and Los Angeles. These
payments have the advantage, says the Wall Street Journal,
of "pumping up CEO pay without ballooning the highly
visible salary." But the expense is all worthwhile,
declares Sears VP Bernard Brosky, because "Making their
lives pleasant and giving them what they want is a necessary
situation." Words of wisdom. — (WSJ 4/7)

 

Freedom of the Press

Newt the Grinch got back into prime
form while addressing a conference of advertising executives
following a dreadful low period when he was once described by
Rep. Pete King as "the most powerful liberal in American
politics." Newt explained the difficulties he faces
trying to get the Republican message across. "It’s
very hard to communicate that partly because the media, which
you all control with your advertising, doesn’t have a
clue what we are doing…" Apparently Newt believes they
are doing something. And who’s fault  is the sad
shape of our media? "The responsibility for a news media
that can’t report accurately how the world works, rests
on those who pay for it, and that’s the
advertisers." Advertisers just need to do a better job
of controlling their employees. And who better to have an
accurate picture of how the world works than our advertisers?
Right on Newt. — (NYT 4/23)

 

Soul Marketing

American Demographics magazine
proudly reports on a growing trend among successful churches
of relying on marketing tools. The "Church Growth"
movement, founded by Donald McGavran, holds that increasing
church size is not just a result of spreading goodwill, but
of the intelligent use of commercial marketing. Says the
magazine, "Terms like ‘market segment,’
‘niche,’ and ‘satisfied customer’ trip
easily off their tongues." Church planners, like
Methodist Jack Heacock, use demographic research to
"reach the largest market segment," while Mormon
planner Kristen Goodman uses it to tap the fruitful
"marriage markets." A model of this approach is the
2nd Baptist Church which has grown to 20,000 members thanks
to its health club, singles group, and a "vigorous
entertainment schedule" designed with help from Walt
Disney. Sadly, churches still confront pockets of people who
decry the use of sales tools, described by Pasedena futurist,
Joe Webb, as the "reactionaries." — (AD
3/97)

 

Investing in Democracy

The outcry over China funneling money
to the Democrats in the last election finally jogged a
reporter’s memory about the U.S. engaging in the same
practice. The NY Times’ John Broder reported that
Congress routinely appropriates $30 million a year for the
National Endowment for Democracy. The NED spends those funds
on candidates and "institution building" in
countries like Nicaragua, Portugal, North Ireland, Bolivia,
and China (which received $1.6 million last year). However,
Louisa Coan, NED’s program officer for East Asia was
quick to point out that their spending in other countries
elections is not comparable to other nations meddling in our
affairs. The difference? "We support people who
otherwise would not have a voice in their political
system…where governments or other social forces prevent
open and peaceful political processes." — (NYT
3/31)

 

"Sweatshops"
Ended

The Clinton administration and major
clothing producers reached agreement on what constitutes a
"sweatshop." Clothiers like Nike and Reebok will be
able to apply a "No Sweatshop" label to their
clothes by not hiring children or pushing workers past 60
hours of work per week or paying below minimum wages. Thus,
workers making 40 cents an hour in Haiti, China, or Indonesia
will no longer be working in "sweatshops." An
important advance. Meanwhile, the Eddie Bauer Co. was honored
by the U.S. Department of Labor. The trendy sportswear chain
made the government’s Trendsetter List of corporations
battling sweatshop conditions despite the fact that much of
it’s clothing is produced by prison labor, a minor fact
the Labor Department and the media seem to have overlooked;
the same prison labor our State Department criticizes China
for using. Prisoners in Washington state learn the garment
trade through the efforts of Redwood Outdoors, Inc., a major
supplier to Eddie Bauer, and earn between $1.80 and $2.80 an
hour. Sounds like "trendsetting" at its best. — (NYT
4/16, Seattle P-I 4/1, Counterpunch 3/15/96)

 

Democracy Upgrade

Throw away your civics text books.
We’ve been promoted beyond mere democracy. For this news
we have to go to Zaire, to a spokesperson for one of our
mining companies, American Mineral Fields. Earl Young and his
company have been buying diamonds from both sides in
Zaire’s civil war. But is Young worried about what may
happen if the rebels win? No. In fact, he beamed with
optimism during a National Public Radio interview, happy in
the knowledge that because we’ve won the Cold War,
people know that "Capitalism is a good form of
government." Some of you may remember we once spoke of
representative democracy in a similar manner. Some may view
Young’s words as the faux pas of a nouveau riche type
unschooled in the subtleties of the country club. We are
supposed to point to our elected officials, after all. But
Young’s view does have a noble lineage. Consider the
immortal words of John Jay, our nation’s first chief
justice, words reportedly found engraved in the Lincoln
Bedroom: "The people who own the country ought to govern
it." — (NPR 4/17)

 

Financial Ties

Poor Knoll Pharmaceutical. The company
paid researchers at the University of California at San
Francisco $250,000 to see if their thyroid medicine was
better than generic brands, and the scientists couldn’t
get the results right. In fact, UCSF’s Dr. Betty Dong
wanted to publish their finding that Knoll’s expensive
medication, used by almost eight million Americans, was no
better than cheaper generic competitors. Unfortunately for
her, Knoll managed to find "significant flaws" in
the research, decided it wanted to get this information to
the public "in a balanced view," and blocked its
publication. After years of litigation, the New England
Journal of Medicine finally published the study, but not
before one final hurdle was cleared. Now that corporate
grants have largely replaced government funding, the Journal
had trouble finding five experts to judge the study who did
not have financial ties to Knoll. — (NYT 4/16)

 

Legal Tangle at
Heaven’s Gate

One of the more intriguing aspects of
the cult suicide of 39 people in California is the fact that
the Society of Heaven’s Gate took out insurance against
the possibility of alien abduction. Now a specialist in
insurance law, attorney John McCarthy, has come forth and
declared the cult may be entitled to $39 million under the
terms of the policy. After all, who’s to say they
weren’t abducted? Maybe the aliens’ transporters
weren’t up to Star Trek standards? "All of the
physical evidence suggests that they expected to be
transported to another world," McCarthy said.
Heaven’s Gate took out the policy from a respected
London insurance agency named Goodfellow Rebecca Ingrams
Pearson. The policy not only insured each member against
abduction by space aliens, but also against wrongful deaths
or impregnation by alien beings (a real bonus). And the
finest legal minds working for the state of California
approved the policy. — (AP 4/5)