Chapter 12

Dr. Brandreth has Gone to Harvard

Gabrielle Wong

New York HeraldThe Herald was a penny press newspaper whose editor, James Gordon Bennett, was a firm

Democrat and a pioneer of crime-reporting.

In 1835, due to a poor investment by James Gordon Bennett, the New York Herald was forced out of business. However thanks to an advertising contract with a man named Doctor Brandreth it was only

closed for 19 days.

The business deal allotted Dr. Brandreth prime real estate advertising for his “cure all” pill on the front page of The Herald.

Several pill companies complained about Brandreth’s frequent appearances in the Herald in which Bennett replied:

Send us more advertisements than Dr. Brandreth does-give us higher prices-we’ll cut Dr. Brandreth dead- or at least curtail his space. Business is business-money is money-and Dr. Brandreth is no more to

us than “Mr. Money Broker.”

Dr. Brandreth set the tone for advertising company power.

More Independent or more Dependent?

• Today, Modern media claims to be immunized by professional ethics, unable to let advertising influence news content.

BUT:

80% of Newspapers make revenues from ads and devote 65% of their daily space to them.

Commercial product is now integrated into dialogue of TV programs.

“The whole idea is to escape the viewer’s mute button.”

This technique was given the name of infotainment.

Subtle Corruption

Advertisers have successfully demanded that the following ideas appear in programs around their ads:

• All businessman are good, all wars are humane, the status quo, bakeries, drug companies, restaurants and grocery stores are all wonderful.

• All cigarette smokers are young and gentle people.

• People who commit suicide never do it with pills.

• Most importantly THE AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE IS BEYOND CRITICISM.

These ideas are not obvious to the viewer. The American audience is meant to believe independent journalists, detached from anything commercial, place the content there.

For the most most part the industry avoids any content that may offend advertisers.

In earlier years advertisers sponsored and produced entire news and entertainment programs-this gave them direct control.

In the 1950’s NBC news was called Camel new Caravan. Which banned ALL film of news that happened to take place where a No Smoking sign was seen in the background.

Corporate sets the Standard

1965:

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) met to determine how much influence advertisers should have in noncommercial content of radio and television.

Albert N. Halverstadt, advertising manager of Proctor & Gamble, established directives in which his company would advertise.

Albert boldly stated:

“The writers should be guided by the fact that any scene that contributes negatively to public morale is not acceptable.” This is what they called positive enforcements.

Sadly, it was not just Proctor and Gamble several large companies believed in the same ideology.

<<< Here are some of Proctor and Gamble products.

A Selling Atmosphere• Advertisers will do what it takes to create a “buying mood”.

Networks make the most money between 8pm and 11pm. • This being the main reason why they avoid the pattern of escapism.

(escapist - a person who escapes into a world of fantasy)• Today our generation is jaded and sophisticated, so now they use

humor, self-deprecation and even satire that leaves the viewer feeling sympathetic to the product.

Magazines

• Before the 1950’s successful magazines were 65% ads, they were fundamentally designed for ads.

• Conde Nast who created Vogue, Vanity Fair, Glamour, Mademoiselle, House and Garden wanted to “Bait the editorial pages…”

• Magazines were the first to carry artistic and tasteful ads.• The role of Magazines was to act as a broker bringing together

buyers and sellers of goods.

“The Cold hard facts of magazine publishing mean that those who advertise get editorial coverage.”

Back to the newspaper

• More newspapers are becoming properties of larger conglomerates where profit levels are dictated by Wall Street and distant CEOs. Pressure has steadily increased to subdue news that might offend any important advertisers.

• Contemporary papers are commonly using material that is not real news but is nonadvertising material. This is also known as “fluff pieces”

• Another growing trend is promotional material under the guise of news.

Some examples

Death for sale

• For the longest time there has been a constant battle between cigarette companies and evidence that smoking kills.

• Newspapers with rare exceptions kept smoking death out of the news. However its hard to ignore over 300,000 annual deaths from tobacco-related illness. Most of these deaths were not reported on T.V or print.

• When it became obvious that smoking caused

serious health problems the Tobacco Institute claimed that more research was needed.

• In1971 tobacco ads were banned from television-they were more willing to research antismoking than print.

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Smoke that Cigarette

• In the late 70’s national publications, especially news magazines, were known for dramatic stories on health. Time and Newsweek both had cover stories titled “What Causes Cancer?”

• Newsweekly magazine:The article was 6 pages long and said no more about the statistics or medical findings of the tobacco-cancer link, except in a table which listed the ten most suspected carcinogens-alphabetically putting tobacco next to last.

• Time magazine: Ran a 2 column article and only stated “smoking and drinking have been linked to cancer”.

Media Disease

• Television did pressure the FCC to run antismoking commercials to counter what the FCC considered misleading cigarette ads and aired documentaries because most of them emphasized the uncertainty of the tobacco link to cancer.

• In 1980 in a survey done by Gallup,Roper and Chilton revealed the following:

• 30% of the public was unaware of the relationship between smoking and heart disease.

• 50% of women did not know that smoking during pregnancy increases risk of stillbirth and miscarriage

• 40% of men and women had no idea that smoking causes 80% of the 98,000 lung cancer deaths per year

• 50% of teenagers did not know smoking may be addictive.

Thank you for smoking