Who's for Whom

As Madison Avenue sees it, the main campaign of Election Year 1964 will pit Doyle Dane Bernbach against Erwin Wasey, Ruthrauff & Ryan, Doyle Dane, the imaginative agency celebrated for its Volkswagen and El Al ads, has landed the prized account to merchandise Lyndon Johnson to the U.S. public; Erwin Wasey, whose accounts stretch from Gulf Oil to Olga Girdles, has edged out Leo Burnett, Inc. and several other eager contenders to win Barry Goldwater's business. Beyond those two, hundreds of agencies this year have gone into politics for pay -- and just about every major candidate has engaged some advertising and public-relations men.

Money Is Bipartisan. In an age when TV advertising eats up one-third or more of campaign budgets, politicians feel a need for the professional touch in creating and placing ads. The agencies do everything from decorating platforms to turning out "victory kits" for local workers. Using their good contacts, they also dicker to get their clients' commercials wrapped around the most popular shows. Some agencies do chores that candidates themselves dare not do, such as soliciting editorial support at the very same time that they buy ad space from the publishers of hand-to-mouth ethnic papers, or paying local authorities not to tear down the candidate's posters. Political accounts pay handsomely in terms of the usual 15% commissions--and in useful contacts.

For all the rewards, the candidates are not always vote getters among the admen, who claim that politicians are often suspicious and unsophisticated in the arts of promotion, demand too much. Says Los Angeles' Sanford Weiner, who handles much of the local Republican advertising: "A political account takes three times the effort, three times the time, three times the wear and tear." Political accounts are rejected entirely by some agencies, notably the nation's biggest, J. Walter Thompson, which holds that they are short-term affairs, and might provoke criticism from the agency's commercial clients.

The chiefs of agencies that handle political accounts are often party faithful: Doyle Dane's William Bernbach is a devout Democrat, and Erwin Wasey's David B. Williams is a Republican regular. But many agencies are pragmatically bipartisan. Bobby Kennedy has placed the ad end of his New York campaign with Manhattan's Papert, Koenig, Lois because his advisers were impressed by its work for Republican Senator Jacob Javits in 1962.

Packaging Johnson. Kennedy's opponent, Senator Kenneth Keating, last week hired small Weiss & Geller to handle his ads. In Chicago, Needham, Louis & Brorby is carrying the banner of Republican Charles Percy against Governor Otto Kerner's agency, Kennedy & Heyne; in California, Pierre Salinger has engaged the Walter Leftwich Organization against George Murphy's Sanford Weiner. Other candidates dispense their business to home-state agencies, almost as a form of patronage, and many also take on public-relations agencies to prepare press kits, write speeches and help the campaign manager form the candidate's image.

On the national level, the Republican and Democratic committees claim that each will invest $3,000,000 to $4,000,000 in advertising this year, but admen estimate that the real figures will be much higher. Madison Avenue denizens report that Erwin Wasey will seek to give Goldwater an "institutional" image, using him in serious five-minute TV spots that will run around such shows as the Lawrence Welk hour, Hollywood Palace and Today, which will be shortened to make time for the ads. Barry will show his handsome face on screen more often than Lyndon, who will rely more on his voice as background to filmed situations. For Johnson, Doyle Dane is taking a "packaged-goods approach," with hard-selling, brief commercials. From an office sealed off from the rest of the staff, 40 Doyle Dane admen are preparing a series of mostly one-mintue spots that begin this week. They will be placed on such shows as Ben Casey, Wagon Train and the Addams Family, a new horror comedy.

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