Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.ads,americast.usa-today.ads From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: ads Tue, Oct 20 1992 Date: Tue, 20 Oct 92 04:35:16 EDT Message-ID: 10-20 0000 DECISIONLINE: Advertising USA TODAY Update Oct. 20, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network MAGAZINE AD SLUMP ENDS: Spirits are high among editors and publishers at the American Magazine Conference in the Bahamas as they see an end to the worst ad slump since the Great Depression. "It's a damn site more optimistic than it was a year ago," says Chuck McCullagh, a vice president at Rodale Press,publisher of magazines such as Prevention, Runners World and Men's Health. (For more, see special Magazine package below.) PEROT PAYS FOR A FEW MORE ADS: Ross Perot has saturated prime-time television with his ads and is just about through. ABC confirmed the Perot campaign paid $5.7 million for air time in the next two weeks, including $370,000 for a 30-minute slot at 8:30 p.m. ET Thursday. He's also airing shorter ads. Perot says he can reach millions of people on television, as opposed to traditional campaign rallies. NEW AD FOCUSES ON TRUST: A new ad from the George Bush campaign was shot at a union rally in New Jersey. This is the second "man-, woman-in-the-street" spot in a row produced by the Bush campaign and the latest in a string of negative ads. The ad plays off a widespread feeling that people don't trust Bill Clinton. The ad attempts to demonstrate that regular people have doubts about Clinton. LUCKY DUCK PRODUCES: Former network news anchor Linda Ellerbee launched Lucky Duck Productions five years ago in the basement of her house. Lucky Duck is on stable financial ground these days with its latest project, "Nickelodeon Special Edition: Who Wants to Be President?" The special airs 7:30 p.m. ET:PT. Ellerbee helped fund the company by doing Maxwell House commercials that looked like a news program. CAMPAIGNS TARGET NEW SHOW: Both the Bill Clinton and President Bush campaigns have bought 30-second ads on CBS' "Love & War," the night before the election. The new sitcom is produced by "Murphy Brown" creator Diane English. Other major TV buys: Both candidates and the Ross Perot campaign made major buys during CBS' post-season coverage of Major League Baseball. BUD BOWL IS BACK: Anheuser-Busch will return to using animated battling bottles for its fifth series of "Bud Bowl" spots during Super Bowl XXVII Jan. 31, according to Advertising Age. Last year's campaign focused more on a consumer promotion than a football game. Spots will use a computer-generated images from Palomar Pictures, Los Angeles, and will feature an animated version of the Bud One Airship. SERIES RATINGS ARE LOW: After two games, this World Series is the second-lowest rated of all time. The two-game overnight average of 17.8 is 9% below last year's. It tops only the 16.4 for the 1989 Oakland-San Francisco "Earthquake Series." The 15.7 overnight for Game 1 probably will be the lowest-rated opening game in Series history when national ratings are released Tuesday. It fell 11% below 1991's 17.7. BUTTERBALL ACCOUNT IS MOVED: Armour Swift-Eckrich moved its account for Butterball turkey and processed meats to Puskar Gibbon Chapin, meaning that the company's creative work now is consolidated at the Dallas agency. Media buying for all Armour Swift-Eckrich products is being consolidated at CME KHBB, Minneapolis. CARTOONIST DROPS RJR SUIT: Nicholas Price, who came up with and drew Joe Camel for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., withdrew his suit against the company pending settlement negotiations. His attorney said he will refile if a settlement is not reached. Price alleges that RJR paid him only $10,000 for the rights to Joe Camel for a 1988 test campaign, but never obtained his permission or provided further payments. NEWSPAPERS WIN AWARDS: The Hattiesburg (Miss.) American and The Times at Gainesville, Ga., won first-place awards in their circulation categories in the annual Southern Circulation Managers Association competition for newspapers. The Hattiesburg American won for field sales promotion, subscriber retention promotion and international carrier day promotion. The Times won for single-copy sales promotion. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON MAGAZINE: REPRESENTATIVES ARE OPTIMISTIC: The American Magazine Conference in the Bahamas is taking place this week, and there is some cause for celebration. Through September, magazine ad pages are up 3.2% over the same period in 1991, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. September marks the seventh month of ad page gains this year. Of course, 1991 was one of the worst years ever for magazines. AD PAGES ARE UP: Even though McCall's and Family Circle will end the year with ad pages up more than 9%, New York Times Magazine Co. vice president Michael Golden says he thinks 1993 will be tougher than 1992 because the outlook for the economy is so cloudy. But Reginald Brack of Time Inc. was ebulient enough to predict that "magazines, along with cable TV, will be the growth media of the 1990s." INDUSTRY HAS BECOME LEANER: Brack says that the recession "forced us all to become leaner, more flexible, more customer-focused. That's good news, because 1992 will bring the first increase in ad pages since 1989." Another sign of better days: Turnout for the conference is a record. More than 730 people are attending the annual meeting of the Magazine Publishers of America. (End of package.) Advertising Editor: Martin Baucom. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. 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