Advertising: Schrafft’s Gets With It

Onto the screen flashes a shiny red dot, which turns out to be a maraschino cherry, which turns out to sit atop a chocolate sundae, which turns out to be the focal point for a swirling phantasmagoria of color. All of which, it also turns out, is a 60-second videotape commercial for a venerable Manhattan-based restaurant chain. “The chocolate sundae,” proclaims a credit line that rolls diagonally across the TV tube, was “photographed for Schrafft’s by Andy Warhol.”

Andy Warhol? Schrafft’s has long conjured up images of little old ladies lunching on wholesome fare served up by apple-cheeked waitresses. Warhol, of course, is strictly pop, having turned out larger-than-life paintings of Campbell soup cans, realer-than-real sculptures of Brillo packages, and longer-than-interminable camp movies. Still, when Schrafft’s decided to project a new with-it look, its ad agency, F. William Free & Co., thought that it might be a good idea to take on Warhol, now recovered from having been shot nigh unto death by a man-hating woman acquaintance last June.

Schrafft’s, a 55-restaurant chain with outlets in eight Eastern states from Massachusetts to Florida, is operated by the Frank G. Shattuck Co., which merged with St. Louis-based Pet Inc. earlier this year. With Pet’s backing, the chain’s boss, Frank Shattuck II, has been trying to sell Schrafft’s to a broader clientele. To that end, for example, some of the New York City outlets are currently being remodeled to make their liquor-dispensing bars just as conspicuous as the familiar soda fountains. Such changes are aimed mainly at the 35-to-40 age group. “Our surveys show that these people are good spenders,” says Shattuck. “They may not have very much money, but they spend a lot.”

One of Schrafft’s recent TV commercials features a trio of shapely girls attired in miniskirts, and asks: “Have you seen the little old ladies in Schrafft’s lately?” The chain’s Warhol pitch is scheduled to be aired on New York stations starting next month, and Shattuck says proudly that “we haven’t got just a commercial. We’ve acquired a work of art.”

Andy Warhol seems to be no less enthusiastic about the venture. “It’s fun,” he says, “and really pretty, really great.” Naturally he now plans to turn out a full-length video-tape movie.