Fizzled Boycott

Sponsors still face threat

Commercial television's Armageddon, previously announced for last week, has been postponed until further notice. After threatening for months to produce a list naming the sponsors most responsible for supporting sex, profanity and violence on TV, the Mississippi-based Coalition for Better Television abruptly announced that its proposed consumer boycott of the offending advertisers was off--for the moment. Appearing at a Washington press conference with Anti-Feminist Phyllis Schlafly and Moral Majority guru, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, CBTV head, the Rev. Donald Wildmon, explained that productive discussions with executives of the companies in question had made a boycott unnecessary. That explanation echoed the sentiment of Moral Majority Spokesman Cal Thomas: "The networks and advertisers seem to have recognized that they have a moral and ethical responsibility to the public."

The pronouncement caused bemusement--and some relief--in executive suites around the country. Studies conducted for ABC and NBC weeks ago concluded that CBTV and the Moral Majority had substantially overestimated national viewer support for their TV cleanup campaign. CBS News found that 30% of the member groups claimed by Wildmon denied that they belonged to the coalition.

Even so, some of the companies whose names came out did make gestures toward cleaning up their acts. Procter & Gamble, TV's biggest advertiser with $486.3 million invested last year for such products as Pampers and Cheer, revealed that over the past year it had withdrawn its sponsorship from some 50 episodes. SmithKline, which advertises Contac and Dietac, responded to CBTV by expressing its concern in writing to the networks. A few other companies, including Gillette, Phillips Petroleum and Dow Chemical, took the precaution of getting in touch with CBTV. The judgment conveyed to Phillips Petroleum Media Relations Representative Jim Daniels: "We were pretty good for sex, middle of the road for violence and bad for profanity."

Some advertising industry insiders are openly skeptical about CBTV'S motives for canceling the boycott. Explains a Chicago media expert: "Four of the advertisers rumored to have been on the coalition's hit list represented maybe 150 different brands of merchandise. The coalition was confronted with an impossible job, boycotting all those brands effectively. I think the coalition leaders finally asked themselves, 'Why boycott ineffectively, when we can merely threaten to more effectively?' " Not surprisingly, Wildmon, Falwell and company last week said they will revive the boycott if advertisers do not shape up by the fall season.

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