Naming Names

In one of Gillette's current TV commercials, a man's hand appears, sets down a dispenser of Gillette razor blades and--of all things--three clearly labeled dispensers of rival Wilkinson, Schick and Personna blades. The hand naturally picks up the package of Gillette after brushing the others aside, but the very appearance of rivals is a departure from tradition. Such direct identification of competition has long been a rarity, and advertisers have gone to almost any length to avoid it. Now a steadily growing number are coming right out and naming names, thus bringing on bad times for Brand X. Happy Birthday. Dodge dealers in the East and Midwest recently ran a radio campaign that openly wooed "you guys and gals who are bored with Ford." A current magazine ad for Hudson's Bay Scotch shows a dozen other brands, advises that "now that you have acquired a taste for Scotch, you are ready for Hudson's Bay." An ad for Old Grand-Dad bourbon names half a dozen leading competitive brands in wishing them happy birthday "from the head of the family." U.S. Rubber promotes its Royal golf ball by picturing it with four better-known balls and the headline, "The five leading golf balls: only one is registered." This fall American Motors will specifically name competing cars in its new ad campaign as a way of pointing up Rambler features. Many more advertisers that do not name their rivals in so many words still make it unmistakable where the com petition is. When Avis calls itself No. 2, readers know at once that Hertz is No. 1. "There are only two well-known color films in America," begins General Aniline & Film Corp.'s new ad for Anscochrome, thus immediately identifying Kodak as its chief competitor without actually saying so. Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Co.'s ad for Dynachrome gets the same result by boasting that its color film produces just as good pictures as "the stuff in the yellow box." Reflected Strength. For such industry leaders as Gillette, naming the competition is largely a matter of reminding consumers that their product sells most and is therefore, by inference, best. Most advertisers who name their competitors, however, are underdogs trying to draw reflected strength from the prestige of their better-known rivals. So far, the ad industry disagrees about the desirability of the new trend. Says Fairfax Cone: "It's bad manners, and I can't believe the public will stand for it." The rivals who get named do not always feel bad about it. MG shows its sports sedan beside a Volkswagen, asks the question: "Popularity contest: Who won?" (MG's answer: In a poll of 28,000 people, Volkswagen, which sells 68.2 cars to MG's one in the U.S., was preferred by three out of five people, a ratio that the less known MG found flattering.) Volkswagen was so delighted by the ad that its advertising manager called up MG to say thanks, and he meant it.

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