Thursday. October 4, 1979
Pago 8
Weekender
Mi?A&SitH costs most
Megabuck i V spots cater to odd viewers
By JAC VERSTEEC
Is there anything you can think of
that you want so badly you'd be
willing to spend $150,000 to have it for
just 30 seconds? Okay, can you think
of anything legal?
Well, according to Ad Age, a 30
second commercial aired during
CBS's MASH costs about
$150,000 the most expensive.spot on
television. "
Most MASH episodes carry six
30 second spots, bringing in revenue
that totals about $900,000 per
episode. With that kind of money
they could almost afford to hire real
doctors to play the parts.
It's possible to get a picture of the
typical consumer that MASH
advertisers are trying to reach with
their commercials. One recent
episode featured ads for nasal spray,
Avon and Cover Girl make-up, Kodak
cameras, Quasar television sets and
Special K cereal. So the average
MASH viewer must be a TV
watching photographer with a runny
nose, heavy make-up and an inch to
pinch.
The second most expensive
commercials air on another CBS
show, 60 Minutes, where 30 second
spots run about $145,000. Twelve
commercial spots six of those 60
minutes net $1.74 million, and that
pays for an awful lot of check book
journalism.
Television
Just before a recent 60 Minutes
segment profiling Johnny Carson, Ed
McMahon appeared in a commercial
hawking Ford cars. It's surprising he
didn't end the commercial with,
"And heeeeeere's Johnny!"
ABC's. Three's Company, one of
television's leading T&A shows with
a mere four T's (as advertisers county
and three A's, brings in more than'
$18,500 per anatomical unit for each
30 second spot. That's $130,000 per
spot or $780,000 each episode.
Commercials on one Three's
Company show advertised Riunite
wine, Oleg Cassini perfume, a movie
about Jack the Ripper, Nestle's
EC
October 4-21
Play makers Theatre
For Reservations Call 933-1121
Steinbeck's Classic
MRP)
en r
Crunch candy bars and some sort of
make-up called Moisture Whip.
Obviously, drunk psychopathic
killers who first wetly whip and then
go crunchy, crunchy, crunchy with
sweet smelling women are the prime
viewers of Three's Company.
A couple of ABC's other shows,
Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley
also get about $130,000 for seconds.
Mork and Mindy, charging
$120,000 for its commercials, must be
watched by kids and dogs with oral
fixations. On one recent episode
every commercial spot was for food:
Corn Bran cereal, Reese's Peanut
Butter Cups, Kool-Aid, York
Peppermint Patties, Pizza Hut Pizza
and, either because Mork can talk to
dogs or as a suggestion for cleaning
everything else off the teeth, Milk
Bone Dog Biscuits.
The meter drop on ABC's Taxi is
$120,000, or about $720,000 each
episode, a more than fair fare. Taxi
commercials have promoted Paul
Masson wine as endorsed by Orson
Wells, Sheer Energy panty hose,
Eveready Batteries, jee Jeans, Soft
Scrub bathtub cleanser and Pizza Hut.
There's so much of Orson Wells
that it seems a shame to use him only
in one spot. It might be a trifle
cheaper to hire Orson by the pound
and combine all the commercials so
that Orson, one leg clad in panty hose
the other in jeans, floats comfortably
in his immaculate tub, stuffing
himself with wine and pizza while
Robert Conrad tries to knock a
battery off his shoulder.
WKRP, the fictional radio station,
ekes out a living by running
commercials for budget burial plots
and fishing bait purported to be "the
Cadillac of -worms." But when the
radio goes on TV in WKKP in
Cincinnati, CBS collects $110,000 for
each spot.
Despite the millions of dollars
spent on TV ads each day, nobody
knows how effective the ads are.
Nevertheless, when Quasar plunks
down $150,000 for a commercial on
MASH it likes to think it's
convincing thousands of viewers to
buy its TV sets. Should someone let
Quasar know it's spending $150,000
just to give millions of viewers a
chance to go to the bathroom?
Jac Versteeg isa television critic for
The Daily Tar Heel.
Duke University Union, Major Attractions Committee
presents
ROYAYERS
in concert
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12
8:00 p.m. at
Page Auditorium.
Tickets are $7 i
Reserved Seating ;
$6 General Admission, j
and are available at L,
Page Box Office, School Kids Records in Raleiqh and
Chape! Hill, and WDUR.
ROY AYERS PLAYS THE JAZZ VIBES.
i
CROOK'S CORNER BARBECUE
UNC Home Game Box Lunch Special
X IK
- A v.
Chopped Pork BBQ
or
Half Barbecued Chicken
plus r
Slaw, Hushpuppies ?
and Iced tea !
ONLY $3.50
(until halftime)
610 VV. Franklin St.
on the Chapel Hill-Carrboro line
Call929-OINK
POST GAME SPECIALS, TOO!
The Mad Hatter presents
Saturday Night, Oct. 6
BOOGIE ALL NITE!
J 1 J
I CP I
Tickets Available at Mad Hatter.
WDBS and Schoolkids Records
Oct.
Oct.
Oct.
8
9 -
-COMING SOON
- New Grass Revival
- Apple Chill Cloggers
Casablanca Records, Record
Bar & WQDR present the
ROBIN WILLIAMS LOOK AND
ACT ALIKE CONTEST!
Oct. 10 - Sam & Dave
Sec them all at the
Triangle's Finest Night Spot