Television: Bad Timing

To bring the Floyd Patterson-Hurricane Jackson fight (see SPORT) into focus for America’s armchair fans last week over NBC, the Buick Motor Division of General Motors forked out about $250,000. What it got for its money was as distasteful as the fight itself. Between rounds, a glassy-eyed young pitchman trundled before the viewing public one dull, lumpy Buick “salesman” after another. Wearing Panama hats, they muttered mostly about this being a dandy time to get a good deal on a Buick. The clincher came at the fight’s crucial moment. As Referee Ruby Goldstein snaffled the bludgeoned Jackson away from his opponent and signaled a TKO, Buick butted in, sealing off to millions of viewers all the activity in the ring. Some 400 letters of protest bombarded Buick.

Hard-boiled Buick Boss Ed Ragsdale was also burned. Said he, in a statement unprecedented in tortured viewer-sponsor relations: “As a fight fan myself, I was incensed at the inept handling and bad timing. As general manager of Buick, I feel that a public apology is in order, and I assure those interested that this will not happen again on any public-service telecast sponsored by Buick.”