Selling 'Em Jimmy and Jerry

There's a change that's come over America, it's a change that's great to see.

The TV commercial's sprightly jingle accompanies handsome footage of people working, playing, relaxing and flashing warm all-American smiles. Coca-Cola? McDonald's? Nope. The next face on the screen belongs to a nice, reliable, fatherly type who looks very much like--in fact, who is Gerald R. Ford. No name is mentioned; there is no appeal for votes. "Peace with freedom," intones an announcer as the minute draws to a close. "Is there anything more important than that?"

Not really. But to Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and many other candidates, winning elections seems to come in a close second, and hiring the right advertising agency is considered one sure way of getting more votes. Indeed, results of campaign commercials have been mixed, but political accounts are a significant part of the advertising business--more for the prestige than the billings they bring. Yet for the industry the billings are nothing to sneeze at; the Ford and Carter campaigns have advertising budgets that total at least $18.5 million (about $10 million of that for Ford). Perhaps in an effort to keep their smalltown, mainstream images unsullied, both candidates have avoided the sophisticated agencies of Madison Avenue. Carter's adman is Atlanta-based Gerald Rafshoon, while the Ford campaign is being handled by Bostonian Malcolm MacDougall.

The Plan. MacDougall, 48, is creative director of Humphrey Browning MacDougall Inc., which has $30 million in annual billings--small potatoes by Manhattan standards but enough to make it Boston's biggest ad agency. He is best known in the advertising community for being the first "to call a jock a jock" in a campaign for Bike brand underwear ("There's nothing like a washed-out jock"). Other successful MacDougall slogans: "It takes two hands to handle a whopper. The two-fisted burger from Burger King"; "Salada--the coffee drinker's tea."

MacDougall was recruited by a fellow Harvardman, Washington Campaign Consultant John Deardourff. With his partner Douglas Bailey, Deardourff is co-chairman of Campaign '76, the advertising arm of the President Ford Committee. The three men, closeted in a Kansas City hotel during the Republican Convention, drafted a thick tome they called simply The Plan. Its broad strategic aim: to focus attention on Ford's openness and his healing effect on the country, rather than on details of his positions on the issues.

Today MacDougall presides over what he calls "an instant ad agency" located in a Manhattan penthouse. Out of four editing rooms flow dozens of 1-min. and 5-min. TV "documentaries." Says MacDougall: "We hope to present our case so simply that nothing will be talked about as an advertisement. The less memory of slickness left in people's minds, the more we will have accomplished." Example of MacDougall's unslick touch: Ford never wears makeup. One 5-min. piece is a biography of the President, stressing his command positions, from Eagle Scout to football captain to House minority leader. A 60-sec. commercial, aired last week, describes the nation's recuperation from Watergate and offers a new slogan: "President Ford. He's making us proud again."

MacDougall is delighted that Ford chose Robert Dole. Reason: FORD-DOLE neatly fits most designs. Says MacDougall: "If Ruckelshaus had been the nominee, we would have been dead--in terms of design."

Getting Jimmy Carter elected is the grand design of Gerald Rafshoon, 42, the New York-born head of the Atlanta shop bearing his name. A University of Texas graduate, he cut his teeth doing publicity for 20th Century-Fox and founded his own shoestring outfit in 1963. He has 16 nonpolitical clients led by the regional division of Sears, Roebuck with about $1 million in billings. Local concerns, such as GETZ Exterminators ("GETZ Gets "Em") and the Georgia department of industry and trade, bring him $6 million more annually.

Cinema Verite. "I may not be the best adman in the country," says the rumpled, easy-mannered Rafshoon, "but I am the foremost authority on Jimmy Carter in terms of advertising and how it best suits him." The collaboration between the two goes back to 1966, when Rafshoon handled Carter's unsuccessful race for the Georgia Governor's mansion. This year, with the aid of just two writers, two airtime buyers and a tiny office staff, Rafshoon waged a year-long ad blitz in 38 states to win his man the Democratic nomination, preparing and airing commercials without Carter's reviewing them first. "Jimmy never tells me what to do," says Rafshoon. "He knows I am a professional and trusts my judgment." Indeed, Rafshoon's ardor for his work contributed to his recent divorce; now, as a man-about-politics, he is often seen squiring Socialite-Author Barbara Howar.

Rafshoon is spending some $7 million on media buying and $1.5 million on production and materials. Thirty new staffers have been taken on for the campaign. Like MacDougall, Rafshoon will rely principally on 5-min. film clips that will be used on the networks. As in the primaries, the Carter ads are of the cinema verite variety, illustrating the nominee's vision of America. They show him mingling with voters, caressing corn stalks near his farm, and extemporizing upon his stands on specific issues. Rafshoon is repeating a strategy he successfully employed during the battle for the nomination: planting 30-sec. spots on TV shows such as Lawrence Welk and Hee-Haw, favored by down-home Americans. Both TV and print ads hammer home the campaign's theme: "A Leader, for a Change."

What happens to an adman if his client wins, or retains the White House? Malcolm MacDougall, a political independent who had never met Ford before August, plans to return to Boston, where he may continue to handle some political accounts. As for Rafshoon, he doubts that an adman would be needed in Jimmy's Administration. "Besides," Rafshoon says unconvincingly, "he would probably reorganize me right out of a job before it was over with."

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