Sponsorship and Censorship

Some broadcasters refuse to run commercials with a message

In Aesop's day a fable was a parable that expressed such useful truths as "Necessity is the mother of invention," "Look before you leap," and "Slow and steady wins the race." But today one man's parable may look like the most obvious kind of self-promotion to his neighbor. So, at least, did the Mobil Corp. discover when it tried to introduce six imaginative new TV commercials. The ads, which Mobil politely calls "fables for now," feature dancers and mimes masquerading as animals to make Mobil's points. Three stations have banned the ads altogether, and at least one-consumer group--Washington-based Energy Action--says it may ask for equal time from the 54 stations that are running them.

The commercials, which defend the high profits of oil companies, among other things, are attached to Edward and Mrs. Simpson, a six-part British-made and Mobil-syndicated series about the romance that led to the abdication of King Edward VIII. No one objects to the series, but officials at three stations owned by the Washington Post-Newsweek broadcast group--in Jacksonville, Detroit and Hartford--told Mobil that the ads violated their ban against advocacy commercials. "We believe that controversial issues should be dealt with in our news and public affairs programs," says Amy McComb, manager of Jacksonville's WJXT. Adds Joel Chaseman, president of the Post-Newsweek stations: "We have a policy that spot commercials are not the proper forum for complex and controversial issues."

Mobil had no trouble in persuading other stations in the three cities to pick up the series, but Herbert Schmertz, the firm's vice president for public affairs, was nonetheless outraged by the stations' actions. Adding to his anger was the earlier refusal of the three major networks to run a more straightforward, nonfabulous commercial. That spot maintained that Mobil's profits are actually lower, in terms of return on invested capital, than those of the networks. The networks' response was much the same as that of the Post-Newsweek stations, but a spokesman for NBC could not resist noting that however Mobil skewed the figures, its after-tax profits in 1978 were nevertheless more than one-third greater than the pretax profits of NBC, CBS and ABC combined--a not entirely apt comparison that may only have confused the question.

Visually, the fables are fetching.

Schmertz, who had them adapted from a series of Mobil newspaper ads, has enlisted such talents as the American Ballet Theater and Mimes Robert Shields and Lorene Yarnell to act out his messages. One of the most elaborate of the spots, the tale of a misunderstood elephant, combines cartoon animation, costumed frolicking by the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company and a clever voice-over (see box). In another, the A.B.T. dances out the story of a squirrel who was good at finding nuts.

After a while, nuts became harder to come by and he had to ask for more money. The other squirrels complained about their demanding colleague to the squirrel king, who created a "department of nutty persons" to keep a lid on the price of nuts. But then the industrious squirrel could not afford to climb to the highest branches, and before long there was a shortage of nuts. Mobil's moral: "When the king starts meddling in the nut business, it's enough to drive the squirrel up a tree ... So let the energy producers do their job. Don't drive them up a tree." The fables are, in short, about as subtle as a supertanker.

Schmertz argues that Americans should have an opportunity to see the Mobil ads, even if they do not agree with them. (Most viewers would not find Mobil's probusiness, antiregulation positions very controversial.) By refusing to run the spots, he says, the TV managements are engaging in censorship. Says Schmertz: "The commercials make a contribution to the dialogue on an important issue. If we believe in a pluralistic society that depends on a robust marketplace of ideas, then the networks and stations are really shortchanging the American people." He rejects the defense that news shows are better forums for complex issues than paid commercials. "We have had a longstanding problem with network news in terms of getting our point of view across. I don't think we should have to rely on a filter to talk to an audience. We should be able to talk directly to the American people."

Actually, the argument over who should be allowed to talk to the people is almost as old as broadcasting. Radio and TV stations, unlike newspapers and magazines, use public property: the air waves. So in order to present their programs and messages, broadcasters have not been given all the freedoms the First Amendment provides the print media. By law, radio and TV stations are governed by the so-called Fairness Doctrine, which was first formally enunciated by the Federal Communications Commission in 1949. Under that rule, broadcasters must devote a reasonable amount of time to the discussion of controversial issues, and they must allow an opportunity for opposing viewpoints to be heard. They have said, as a result, that in the case of commercials, paid spots should sell products or burnish a company's image, not advocate points of view.

The issue became crucial in the early 1970s, when a group of antiwar businessmen and the Democratic National Committee each tried to buy spots opposing the policies of the Nixon Administration. The networks said no, and both the FCC and the Supreme Court backed them up. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Warren Burger said that broadcasters must be allowed "significant journalistic discretion" in deciding how to interpret the Fairness Doctrine. If broadcasters were forced to give time to anyone who could buy it, he added, "the views of the affluent could well prevail over those of others, since they would have it within their power to purchase time more frequently." The court was saying that it is up to broadcasters to decide what commercials they will run, and the Fairness Doctrine is vague enough to allow three stations to reject Mobil's fables and more than 50 others to carry them.

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