ADVERTISING: $100 Million Down the Drain

In San Diego’s Hotel del Coronado last week, some 300 admen at an American Association of Advertising Agencies convention heard a talk that did their ulcers no good. Declared Ad Expert Horace Seymour Schwerin: “Of over $400 million which will be spent on TV advertising this year, well over $100 million is going down the drain. This is expensive garbage.”

Schwerin was in a good position to know which TV commercials fail to sell-and why. Since 1946, his Schwerin Research Corp., which has 30 clients (e.g., General Mills, Borden, Colgate-Palmolive), has tested more than 3,500 commercials on more than 1,000,000 viewers. Among his findings: that scantily clad models are poor saleswomen (they distract viewers from products they demonstrate); that a “baby sitter” who plugs a TV set as the best of any that she has seen in the homes where she has worked, is more effective than an “engineer”; that a professional chef who tells how easy a prepared cake mix is to use does not get anywhere near the audience response of a child who stirs up the cake mix right before the viewers.

Furthermore, says Schwerin, “TV is not an advantageous medium for every type of product … It is easy to show that a shoe polish will shine shoes, but how can you show that a pill will give relief?” Many a TV ad fails, says he, because admen are “college men … not in rapport with the people they are communicating to.”

Schwerin, 40, a graduate of Lafayette College and King’s College in London, made his name as a pollster while in the Army. Working off-hours with 700 volunteers, he turned in reports showing soldier dissatisfaction with recreation facilities, housing, food, etc. The report caught the eye of the quartermaster general, who wanted better meals with less waste.

Schwerin’s staff studied some 2,400,000 individual meals, recommended such changes as a cut in soup (which G.I.s did not care for) and a boost in ice cream. He also worked out a formula for predicting how many soldiers would show up for a given meal, thus cut waste. The Army followed the report, saving taxpayers an estimated $110 million yearly.

Back in civvies, he started Schwerin Corp., now collects an estimated $800,000 a year in fees ranging from $800 for checking a single short commercial to $54,000 for a yearly contract. In Manhattan’s 400-seat Avon Theater, he tests ads and new programs on both cross-section audiences and special groups invited by mail (such as dog owners for Ken-L-Ration commercials). The viewers turn in reports to determine how much of the sales message is retained. Since most of his business comes from corporations checking on their ad agencies, he naturally hears many a snide comment about his work from Madison Avenue’s and alley. Retorts Schwerin: “Agencies must realize that they can no longer . . . play this medium by the seat of their pants.”