On TV guest shots. Comic George Jessel has a knack for veering the conversation to Bulova watches. While palavering with Jack Paar before millions of viewers not long ago, Georgie went on and on about his watch, a Bulova. When being Person to Personed by Ed Murrow, Jessel lovingly showed off five clocks in his house; all five were gifts from Bulova. (Genial Georgie insists neither mention was intended as a plug.)
Many comedians are prolific brand-name droppers. Gagged Bob Hope recently: "The NBC peacock is really a plucked pigeon with a Clairol rinse." Jerry Lewis punched out a joke with the tag line, "Look, Mom, no cavities!"—which happens to be a slogan of Crest toothpaste. Steve Allen built a skit around Colgate's toothpaste ingredient, Gardol, and the Three Stooges built an act around Polaroid cameras. On NBC's Ford Startime fortnight ago, Dean Martin greeted Guest Frank Sinatra with a cheery "What's this you're wearing—My Sin?" And on a Crosby-Sinatra show, one of whose comedy skits involved the rest rooms of a filling station, the script specified Union Oil.
Such plugs, even when they grow out of genuine comedy, bring payoffs (sometimes known as payola) of varying kinds; the My Sin plug reportedly was worth more than $1,000. Sometimes the payoff goes to the performers, but usually to writers or other employees of a show. Last week the Federal Communications Commission belatedly began to investigate TV's predilection for the plug. The announcement aroused widespread dismay. Moaned Actor Walter Slezak: "Everybody has become so suspicious that if you say 'Oh, my God!' on television, people think you're being paid off by the Holy Father."
Everybody's Doing It. The plug system is so well organized that there are lists setting out which firms pay what—and it would not be possible if U.S. business did not eagerly go along. Many a performer jokes about the practice. Arthur Godfrey slipped in a mention of a popular brand of shoes and then conspicuously followed by specifying his own shoe size. On his NBC show, Interviewer Tex McCrary enjoyed displaying people who happened to be clients of his pressagentry firm.
Admen buzz that one of Madison Avenue's biggest agencies pays up to $1,000 for dropping a mention of a client on a high-Trendexed show. A Hollywood public-relations agency spreads word that for $500 it can get plugs into the scripts of one of the half-dozen most popular TV comedians. One Beverly Hills agency that specializes in placing plugs, Fishell & Associates, sends out to writers and producers a long list of "clients" that pay it for arranging a mention. Among them: Howard Johnson, Betty Crocker, Western Union, Wheaties, Diners' Club, Gallo wines, Playtex girdles.
Some stars play along with the racket because crack writers are tough to come by, must be pampered. According to Hollywood folklore, Jack Benny once used a quick series of five plugs which furnished the home of a writer who was about to get married. But a writer often has to exercise all his creative talents to ease in a plug. Working on a racing yarn, one writer yearned to plug a well-known drug product. Solution: he named a race horse Anahist.