#99 Johnson-Bogert Ad

Blogpost #99 — June 24, 2020

http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2020/06/99-johnson-bogert-ad.html

Posted by Denny Hatch

Two Off-the-wall Political Ads—
The Greatest in Television History

The year was 1964. The young, dazzling and handsome President John F. Kennedy was assassinated three years earlier. He was succeeded by a hulking 6’ 4” 250-lb. Texas good-ole-boy with a southern drawl who had spent 24 years in Congress ending up as Senate Majority Leader. Unlike John Kennedy, LBJ knew everybody of consequence in Washington and, above all, was a master at manipulating the levers of power. 

Johnson had spent a whirlwind year in office overpowering the political establishment by engineering passage of a major tax cut, the Clean Air Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The 1964 Election

After just one year in office it was election time. The Republicans were on a powerful small government kick that recoiled against the wild extravagance of the Democrats. They engineered the nomination of LBJ’s total political opposite — Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater — author of the manifesto, The Conscience of a Conservative.

To many Republicans, Goldwater was a savior of the Republic. To Democrats he was a seen as an extremist arch-villain out to shut down the money trough and to lead us into nuclear war. The election was a 48-year-old precursor of Trump v. Clinton. But oh-so-tame by comparison.

Think back on the wild statements, insults, outlandish promises and lies of Donald Trump in the 2016 election. Compare all this to the single pronouncement by Goldwater that drove the Democrats totally, positively nuts:

“Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.”

Suddenly into This Political Maelstrom

Steps My Oldest Friend in the World

I met William Bogert (1936-2020) in the 5^th grade at the Lawrence School in Hewlett, Long Island. Bill was smart as hell, a book worm with a huge vocabulary who by age 10 was absolutely fixated on becoming an actor. We became close friends in grade school before moving on to separate boarding schools and colleges.

In the 1960s we were both living in Manhattan. Bill was focused like a laser beam on his acting career while I served two years in the Army and then stumbled around New York as a book publicist and later traveling incessantly as a salesman covering bookstores, wholesalers/jobbers, schools and libraries in the East and Midwest.

Imagine then my astonishment when I turned on the television set and… OMG, outta the blue, there was apolitical Bill — who had never showed much emotion — suddenly exhibiting severe angst nationwide on the boob tube.

It was an extraordinary off-the-wall performance for President Johnson’s campaign — a four-minute solo stream-of-consciousness tour de force that Bill wrote delivered in a single take.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiG0AE8zdTU 

Nobody in the world had ever seen such an audacious political ad on television before and only once since — when 50 years later — Bill reprieved it for Hillary Clinton in 2016. 
https://time.com/4410286/hillary-clinton-re-ups-confessions-of-a-republican-ad/

The Other 1964 TV Ad Was This Tony Schwartz

Bombshell That Ultimately Crushed Goldwater!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cwqHB6QeUw

Tony Schwartz (1923-2008) — world famous for this controversial ad was not the Tony Schwartz who ghosted Donald Trump’s Art of the Deal. This Tony Schwartz was a sound engineer and record producer. I worked with him very briefly in the late 1950s when I was in the Army (stationed “overseas” on Governor’s Island in New York Harbor where I produced and wrote a radio series for WQXR featuring the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra headquartered in Germany.

Tony Schwarz (1924-2008)

Schwartz was an amazing guy on the cutting edge of stereo vinyl records, electronics and wire recorders — — the high technology of the times.

The Tony Schwartz one-minute “Daisy” spot plus Bill Bogert’s nationwide TV agony riff helped LBJ win 44 states and 61% of the popular vote. 

Bill Bogert's Last Hurrah

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/echoes-of-goldwater-seen-in-  -campaign-678244419675

Bill Bogert may have been the hardest working guy I ever knew. With a madcap bi-coastal life he kept up a performance schedule that would kill the average dude. He never turned down a gig. If he landed an assignment in New York one day and another job the following day in Los Angeles, he was on the overnight flight memorizing his sides (a printed booklet with the actor’s specific part in the script of a play, TV commercial or screenplay) and on the set, on time, knowing his lines and hitting his marks.

Bill’s legacy of performances is staggering. Like Woody Allen’s Zelig, he would show up everywhere — in television series, films, and commercials — one of those busy, perpetually working actors you would see, recognize and have no idea who he was.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0091722/?ref_=nm_mv_close

In 1976, Bill and Jim Henson Muppeteer Erin Ozker fell crazy in love and married. Born in Turkey, Erin was beautiful, vivacious and funny as hell. Everybody who ever met Erin instantly adored her.

Toward the end of Erin's deliriously happy but tragically short life she said: “Cancer isn’t the worst thing that ever happened to me. Finding an apartment in Los Angeles is worse.”

Erin Ozker (1948-1993)

For over 70 years Bill and I saw each other frequently and picked up conversationally right where we left off the last time. I went to the funerals of his parents on Long Island. And I remember Peggy and I bumped into him on a red-eye flight from L.A. to New York; we sat together, mesmerized as we flew through a lightning storm. We were both members of The Players, the actors’ club on Gramercy Park South founded by the great Shakespearean thespian Edwin Booth (remembered today as the brother of John Wilkes Booth). We’d connect at an occasional Pipe Night—that honored such great performers as Milton Berle, James Cagney and Gregory Peck.

Bill stayed with us in Stamford, Connecticut a couple of times and he came to my 70^th birthday bash for a day of horseracing at Philadelphia Park.


One of my great regrets was being out of the country when Erin died 1992 and we missed her funeral. Bill never recovered from the loss. He never remarried. I doubt he ever dated. The last 27 years of his life were tinged with sadness. You can sense that in the interview with Rachel Maddow.

I called to check in on him last October. He sounded frail but okay. We talked about Peggy and me stopping in to see him when we were next in New York. Bill said he'd like that very much. Bill died this past January. He was a helluva guy. I miss him.

                       Historians Weigh in 52 Years Later
A “Republican Confession” from 52 years ago has a lot to say about this year’s election. “Confessions of a Republican,” a four-minute television ad from the 1964 US presidential election, has been making a comeback online.
—Adam Freelander, March 9, 2016, Quartz 
https://qz.com/634578/a-republican-confession-from-52-years-ago-has-a-lot-to-say-about-this-years-election/


For obvious reasons, the ad — called “Confessions of a Republican” — began attracting online attention from conservatives early this year. Quartz ran a story about it on March 9, and Rachel Maddow aired it on her MSNBC show the same night. She then gleefully interviewed the actor from the ad — William Bogert, now 80 years old — in May, and he was just as charming as you might hope.
—David Leonhardt, The New York Times, October 25, 2016
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/25/opinion/campaign-stops/a-republican-confession.html.

The Daisy Ad changed everything about political advertising. Since the famous television spot ran in 1964, advertising agencies have sold presidential candidates as if they were cars or soap.
­—Robert Mann, Smithsonian Magazine, October 25, 2016
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-daisy-ad-changed-everything-about-political-advertising-180958741/ 

Even 52 years later, the Daisy Ad packs an emotional wallop. The one-minute spot was only broadcast once (though it was repeated on the nightly news), but the message set up Johnson’s 1964 landslide.  
—Walter Shapiro, Roll Call, June 7, 2016 
https://www.rollcall.com/2016/06/07/the-daisy-ad-a-half-century-later/

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#98 Trump Letter

 Issue #98 – Wednesday, June 17, 2020

http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2020/06/98-trump-letter_17.html

Posted by Denny Hatch

DENNY'S ENVELOPE DESIGN FOR
DONALD'S VOTE BUYING SCHEME

“The teaser on the envelope is the hot pants on the hooker.” 
—Bill Jayme

Oh, what hot, hot pants!

The open rate would be 100%!

 

Okay, this envelope is obviously fake news. It's not real.

I wrote and designed it.

My message to Fox News: "It's a joke."

Maybe It's Not a Joke. I Believe Trump's       
Campaign May Have Committed Mail Fraud.         

In late May 2020, the Trump campaign sent out to millions of taxpayers a personal letter containing the same information you see on the fictitious envelope above.

Below is the actual outside envelope in which Trump's personal message was mailed to millions of taxpayers.

(NOTE: John & Christine Williams and the address above are fictitious. The mailing is real. I have one in my archive.)

What the hell is the Treasury Department doing sending out a personal letter signed by Donald Trump from The White House in an official Treasury Department OSE?

Below is Trump’s Mailing Received in a

Treasury Department Official Envelope.

Is This a Trump/Pence Campaign Mailing?

I have written on several occasions that members of Congress are not allowed to make fundraising calls nor talk about money with donors in their Capitol Hill offices. Instead, they are forced to spend 4 hours every workday in an off-site phone bank pleading for money. If they don’t raise $18,000 a day, they won’t be re-elected.

My question to the FEC: If a member of Congress is not allowed to make fund raising phone calls from his or her office, can the President of the United States send a fundraising letter to voters in an official Treasury Department envelope?

Technically Trump’s letter is not a fundraising effort. It does not ask for money. It’s dispensing money. Ergo, the campaign lawyers would argue, a fund-giving mailing cannot be called a campaign effort.

Okay, I agree. It’s not a fundraising mailing.

Let’s call it a vote-buying mailing.

“Jeez, Honey, the President is sending us $833. The least we can do is say thank you and vote for him.”

Hey! Why Not Cut Out Treasury and Send

Checks Directly from the White House!

Hell's bells! Trump's name is printed on all the relief checks going out.

The scheme was dreamed up by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. Here's the headline from the story in Forbes:

Mnuchin Says Putting Trump’s Name On Stimulus Checks Was His Idea

 Who needs Steve Mnuchin as the middleman? Let's call a spade a spade. Make damn sure all taxpayers know the money is coming from Sugar Daddy Donald.

Add to the mix: Gerrymandering, voter suppression, eliminating vote-by-Mail, failing to fund the Postal Service, drastically reducing the number of voting machines, purging registered voters, Covid-19 spikes killing off voters, paying $3 trillion to voters in the name of the president and...

Ladeez an' Germs, you have a winnah! 

(BTW, the winner's initials are NOT J.B.)

 Okay, Let an Old Direct Mail Guy

Gussy Up President Trump's Letter

This letter from the president has all the energy and warmth of a dunning notice for overdue taxes or a blob of pigeon guano on the shoulder of your new Gucci jacket in St. Mark’s Square in Venice.

The Trump campaign operatives wanted the Williamses to read three paragraphs of drivel—201 dreary words—before getting the BIG NEWS buried in paragraph 4 of the letter. 

It's a nice letter from the President—alerting John and Chris they are about to receive a chunk of cash and to make sure they remember how wonderful The Dear Leader is.

But given all the bureaucratic verbiage in the letter, millions of Americans no doubt never hung in for the big news—that they were gonna get a hefty $833.85.

Sending a Business Letter to Joe and Jane Lunchbox? 

These Are the Tested Rules of Written Communications.

• “Currently, 45 million Americans are functionally illiterate and cannot read above a fifth-grade level.”

—Literacy Project

• “50% of adults cannot read a book written at an eighth-grade level.” 

—Literacy Project

• “Short words! Short sentences! Short paragraphs!” 

—Andrew J. Byrne, Freelancer

• Don’t use words with a lot of syllables, such as “experiencing,” “unprecedented,” “determination” and “Administration.”

• You don’t see words like these in tweets or texts. American attention spans are too short to handle them.”

• “Avoid gray walls of type.”

—David Ogilvy

“A letter should look and feel like a letter.” 
—Dick Benson

(A Quick Aside on "Trump l'oeil")  
Paintings that appear so real that they look like photographs are called “Trompe l’oeil”—French for “fool the eye.”  If you want the reader of your letter to believe it’s the real thing—intimate, personal and actually signed by the sender—technology can do that for you. My verdict for this Trump l’oeil self-pat-on-the-back is that of the old carnival pitchman: “Close, but no cigar!”)

Here’s the Part of the Letter Where 
The Trump l’oeil Crashes and Burns

• Up until the late 1970s, warm old-fashioned Courier type was standard for use in letters. They looked like the sender sat down at an old Remington typewriter and hand-typed it. When I was a clerk in the Army 1958-60, all the letters I typed for the senior officers to sign looked like this.

• Trump's letter is a serif font—probably a Times Roman—okay in 2020—and in upper/lower case as it should be.

• However, why are the names and address at the top (1) indented? And (2) all CAPS? 

• Plus, the teensy-weensy line of code at the top further destroys any sense of reality. It’s obvious this text block is a machine-driven add-on that destroys the personalization and wrecks any sense of intimacy or Trompe l’oeil.

• In short, what could have been a warm, personal note from the president comes across as a poorly personalized form letter by third-rate programmers.

• The Bar Code under the name an address is obviously not hand typed. Alas it is a necessary evil, since the letter comes in a window envelope. The bar code is needed to show through the window in order to be compatible with the USPS automatic sorters that guide it to the right address.  

• The salutation—“My Fellow American”—stinks.

   —First off, a “fellow” is a man or boy—hardly an appropriate salutation to a woman.

   —If the computer can print JOHN AND CHRISTINE WILLIAMS, a tiny tweak to the program—at no additional cost—could insert:

     Dear John & Christine,

in a matching font in upper/lower case. This is not rocket science!

• The next thing that should catch the reader’s eye is a headline that telegraphs what this letter is what this letter is about—in this case, the big bucks that are being sent ($833.85).

• In the gawd-awful world of Covid-19—layoffs from work, no income, home detention, confused pets and antsy kids—the news of $833.85 coming soon is a pants-wetter for many.

Here’s the Revised Letter Proclaiming the Good News

As Tweaked by the Old Direct Mail Guy

Takeaways to Consider

• “The wickedest sin is to run an ad without a headline.” 
—David Ogilvy

• Same thing with a direct mail letter.

• The headline (or Johnson box) is essential. It immediately makes the taxpayer feel good about Donald Trump. Put another way, with no headline, a huge percentage of taxpayers who have trouble reading will miss the point of the letter that the Trump team hopes will translate into votes.

• Worse, they might completely miss receiving the cash. I damn near chucked out our debit card. It was a lumpy envelope and I assumed it was sales pitch for AAA or AAARP. Thank goodness Peggy opened it.

• I left the body copy of the original letter alone. This is what Trump operatives sweated over. Yes, it’s tedious as hell and yet another self-serving paean. But given the reported fragility of egos in the White House, I would not want to monkey with it.

• Something I have never seen before: The reverse of the letter was absolutely the same—complete with all the personalization—with one difference. It was in Spanish.

• In short, the small changes from the original letter would cost nothing. They are simple programming and copy tweaks that would turn it into a letter that looks and feels like a letter.

• I have often said all businesses—from lone wolf consultants and fulfillment departments to Chairmen & CEOs of multi-national corporations—should have access to the services of a seasoned, sensitive direct marketing copywriter to look over their shoulders and tidy up crappy copy to prospects, customers, subscribers and inquiries.

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Word Count:1425

#97 American Girl

Blog  #97 — Thursday, June 11, 2020

http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2020/06/97-american-girl.html

Posted by Denny Hatch

Are You Surrounding Your Customers?      The Marketing Genius of American Girl

Sometime in the late 1970s, I submitted a fanciful article to Folio: The Magazine of Magazine Management about direct mail. To my surprise, it was accepted, and the editor, Chuck Tannen, invited me to lunch at a restaurant near his offices in New Canaan, Conn., just up the pike from my house in Stamford.

Tannen was a lovely, civilized guy; short with a mop of curly hair and owlish glasses. In the 1990s, Tannen invested in Jay Walker’s Priceline.com and walked away with a tidy $23 million, which delighted me.

As we settled down for lunch, I asked Chuck if Folio were profitable. He wagged his flat right hand and indicated the answer was comme ci comme ça, or so-so. He then went on to explain:

“Folio is the flagship. It spawns books, special reports, the big Folio conference, consulting assignments, list rentals and card decks. When someone in the magazine business buys something from us or attends the Folio Show, it is our license to go after him and sell him anything and everything we have. It is our intention to surround the industry.”

Tannen’s line about surrounding the industry remains etched in my memory. At the time I thought it a brilliant concept. I still do.

At the Next Table: Three Generations

Many years ago, Peggy and I invited our friends Paul Goldberg and Joseph Dipper to lunch in Chicago where we were all attending the Direct Marketing Association Conference. Our hotel concierge recommended NoMI on the seventh floor of the Chicago Park Hyatt. Our table by the big window overlooking the iconic Chicago Water Tower. Everything about the restaurant was world-class—the décor, service, food, wine and vodka (Grey Goose). Dining doesn’t get any better than that, and I would recommend it to anybody who has plenty of money or a fat expense account.

The next table was set for three. Lunching there were a most stylish young suburban matron, her equally stylish daughter— age about 9—and the daughter’s doll, which was continually being fussed over by both. The three of them were having a grand time together. Moreover, they were all wearing the same outfit—the mother, the daughter and the doll.

As they were leaving, I asked the lady if the doll was from American Girl. “Oh, yes,” was the reply. “We have a two o’clock appointment at American Girl Place to do some shopping for clothes and accessories.”

American Girl: The Beginnings

In the 1980s, Peggy and I were running WHO’S MAILING WHAT! out of our house in Stamford, Conn. It was a newsletter based on the giant archive of direct mail and catalogs acquired from our correspondents around the country.

I was vaguely aware of the sumptuous, oversized Pleasant Company catalog offering up-market dolls to little girls. It was a niche thing, and we included it in our listings, but having neither daughters nor granddaughters, we never paid much attention.

The company was founded in 1986 by Pleasant T. Rowland, a former elementary school teacher and TV news reporter who dreamed up the American Girls Collection which she described on the Web site: 

The American Girls Collection and its contemporary counterpart, American Girl Today, were created especially for girls ages 7 to 12—girls who are old enough to read and still love to play with dolls. For younger girls we offer Bitty Baby, a line of soft, huggable baby dolls, board books and accessories that encourage creative play and nurturing behavior.

At Pleasant Company, we are committed—as you are—to providing your American girl with rich, age-appropriate play experiences. By choosing the right books and toys for your daughter at the right age and stage of her growth, you protect her development, nourish her spirit, and give her imagination wing.

With revenues of $300 million, American Girl was bought by Mattel in 1998 for $700 million. American Girl did $342.4 million in 2007, down 28 percent from the prior year.  American Girl is a business model of pure genius that every marketer can learn from. Quite simply, like Folio back in the 1970s, it surrounds the market.

The Great American Girl Smorgasbord

When Peggy’s niece was between 7 and 12, the American Girl catalog used to come to the house and long phone conversations ensued between sisters as to what Aunt Peggy’s gift(s) should be for birthday, Christmas.

I went to the www.americangirl.com website and found an eye-popping (and pocketbook-popping) array of delightful goodies and services: Dolls, Books, Movies, Furniture, Doll Hospital, Doll outfits for every occasion and Accessories—e.g., Maryellen’s Seaside Diner ($350), American Girl City Market ($100), Volkswagen Surf Bus ($650), Julie’s Pinball Machine, Julie’s Pinball Machine ($100), Explore More Luggage Set ($30), American Girl Pet Boutique ($250).

For several years matching outfits for three generations were offered.

Wait, there’s more!  The Stores!

For the retail experience, American Girl has 17 stores. The flagship is Chicago’s American Girl Place on the legendary Magnificent Mile—a jaw-dropping collection of attractions: three floors and a mezzanine offering boutiques, a doll hair salon, doll hospital, theater, bookstore and clothing for both doll and child,” wrote Alex Kuczynski in The New York Times. “There is also a bustling cafe, which offers brunch, lunch, dinner and high tea, and is often booked months in advance.” One of the more amusing accounts of the American Girl retail experience is by a doting father:

Once a year, as the holidays approach, I engage in a ritual well known to men of a certain demographic ilk. Armed by my wife with a shopping list detailed enough to thwart paternal cluelessness, I enter American Girl Place off Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. And there, amid the madding throngs of little girls and their mothers, I rush to score the season’s must-have accessories for Felicity and Samantha. Those would be my daughters’ beloved dolls.

It is not my favorite shopping experience. But then, American Girl wasn’t created for fathers. And if you are a little girl or her mother (or grandmother, or aunt), American Girl is, at most times, a quite breathtakingly attractive amalgam of education and entertainment, all of it rooted in storytelling.

After a $22 lunch, a $32 revue, a $15 hair styling, and a $24.95 photo session, plus a few new outfits and a book or two, of course, you’re talking about a dollstravaganza tab running to several hundred dollars. Not for the faint of heart. Nor, as I’ve noted, for dads. And that’s before the package deal with any number of hotels, which (again, brilliantly) offer turndown service for dolls in their own beds; Wyndham Hotels throws in a logoed doll bathrobe.

—Keith H. Hammonds, Fast Company, September 2006

Fast Facts About American Girl

• More than 157 million American Girl® books have been sold since 1986.

• Over 32 million American Girl® dolls have been sold through the company's catalogue, retail stores, and website since 1986.

• The American Girl catalogue is the largest consumer toy catalogue and ranks as one of the top 30 consumer catalogues in the country.

• American Girl® magazine ranks among the top ten children’s magazines in the nation and is the largest publication dedicated exclusively to girls ages 8 and up. 

• American Girl's proprietary retail stores have welcomed over 94 million visitors. The stores have won numerous awards and are recognized as premier models for experiential retail.

• The American Girl website, americangirl.com, receives over 45 million visits per year.

• American Girl's social channels—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube—reach a combined audience of over 2MMfollowers.

• American Girl has a long-standing commitment to children's charities nationwide. To date, the company has donated more than $125 million in cash and products.

Takeaways to Consider 

• The glory of American Girl is the customer base—an endless supply girls reaching ages 4-12 who love dolls with referrals from mothers and grandmothers—happy alumnae of the American Girl Experience.

• Pleasant Rowland did not start a catalog business or a retail operation selling individual, unrelated disparate items like so many catalogs that crashed and burned—Lillian Vernon, Sharper Image and DAK Industries.

• Rowland created a fun and exciting fantasy world that she turned into a perpetual continuity series. She doesn’t have buyers. She has collectors bent on enhancing a lifestyle they love.

• Other niche lifestyle catalogs of this ilk: Sporty’s Pilot Shop, PilotMall.com, Boaters Catalog, Overton’s (Boating Essentials) … you get the idea.

• Check out the American Girl Web site for ideas that could be applied to your own endeavors. It is a marvel—easy to navigate, first-rate at persuading visitors to part with their money, brimming with offers and opportunities.

• Are you surrounding your industry or marketplace?

• Always think about line extensions—relevant new products and services to generate more revenue from your existing customers (i.e., get a larger share of wallet).

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