He Can't See, But He Can Sell

For years, there have been gag presidential campaigns. Gracie Allen mounted one. So did Pat Paulsen. And Huckleberry Hound. So did someone else with the goal being something other than the White House—Mr. Magoo.

Ad agency BBDO took the 1960 election campaign and used metaphors to sell General Electric light bulbs, building it around Mr. Magoo. It would seem like an odd choice, given that light bulbs wouldn’t make the almost-blind Magoo see any better. But Magoo was an incredibly popular character through the ‘50s, winning two Oscars, and 1960 was a good year for him, too. Hank Saperstein had wrested control of the UPA cartoon studio from Stephen Bosustow and was about to flood television with brand-new, made-for-TV Magoo cartoons, after a deal for a half-hour show sponsored by Kellogg’s fell through. The less said about the TV cartoons, the better. But thanks mostly to Jim Backus’ enthusiastic voice work, Magoo was not only popular, he was better known to people than than giant corporation General Electric.

Magoo had proven to be a good salesman, too, appearing on beer commercials in the 1950s. Here’s how Broadcasting magazine of August 15, 1960 describes his job at G-E.

General Electric bets a million on Magoo to win
A million dollar's worth of tv time will be thrown behind the autumn campaign on behalf of General Electric's favorite candidate — Mr. Magoo, animated spokesman for GE's light bulbs.
The largest block of time yet bought will carry the Magoo message to the precincts through 269 tv stations in 129 markets. A total of 14,000 spot tv commercials will be sponsored over a four-week period starting Sept. 19.
One-minute announcements, 20-second spots and IDs will present the cartoon character as he solicits votes for GE's lamp division. The Magoo platform — "The soft-white bulb for better light."
The little fellow with the genial visage and the worst case of near-sightedness on the air will shake hands with water-pump handles and smooch babies in his "Ballot For Bulbs" campaign. In a typical 20-second commercial he quips, to a poodle in a woman's arms, "It's easy to see whose baby you are" and enters a police station in the belief it's a fine place for a campaign speech.

Salesman Magoo ■ After Mister Magoo had been given a test run last spring, Marty King, advertising manager of the GE lamp division, described the campaign as "the best tie-in and sales-getter General Electric has used in its advertising history."
The spring test was based on a three-week campaign of 20-second IDs in Fort Wayne, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. GE's agency, BBDO New York, had suggested Mister Magoo as the company searched for a livelier message than had been used in its extensive network radio and tv campaigns. Tv particularly, it was felt, needed a more exciting vehicle.

GE figured it should be able to build up sales through saturation spots, perhaps in the Lestoil manner. It already had a distribution and permanent merchandising system.
After the three-city test, Mister Magoo was given point-of-purchase displays tieing-in with commercials appearing in a 125-market saturation run that lasted three weeks. From now on Mister Magoo will be featured in spring and autumn tv schedules backed by "push-through merchandising on top of good advertising."
The spring testing was checked by Schrewin Research. The verdict: good company recognition. In a sampling made later during the actual placement of Magoo commercials (using a 2,000-phone call sample and a check that included 375 stores), recognition of Mister Magoo scored in one-half of those interviewed, while GE earned a 35% recognition.
According to Mr. King, part of the GE bulb success came from a realization simply that "selling bulbs was like selling Jello, a Revlon lipstick or a Lestoil. What we needed to instill was 'local excitement'." And that's the tenor of Magoo selling.

Female Audience ■ Since 70% of the electric bulb market is traced to women purchasers, most of the "Ballot for Bulbs" campaign will be minutes placed near daytime programs. But last spring GE found that though dealers heard about Mister Magoo, they hadn't seen him. This will be rectified in the fall with some 20s and IDs in prime evening time.
In this energetic GE push which will aim toward the traditional bulb outlets of drug, variety, hardware and food stores, dealer contests will be held along with establishment of tie-in displays.
Already there's been a bit of fun that GE hadn't planned on. During the Democratic convention last month CBS-TV cameras picked up a demonstration for Adlai Stevenson. In the background but flying high waved a "Magoo for President" banner. Westinghouse Electric, a director competitor of GE's, sponsored the CBS coverage.
GE contrives carefully for attention. At a Battle Creek, Mich., store (CutRate market) last spring a direct tie-up with the Magoo commercial campaign included a 40-foot GE bulb display set up along one whole wall. In the three-week tv campaign the store sold $4,000 worth of bulbs, or 25% of its annual bulb volume.
The Magoo commercial concept is the creation of Art Bellaire, vice president and associate copy director in charge of tv and radio at BBDO. who conceived the idea of making a salesman out of the familiar UPA animated character. Dick Mercer, vice president and creative group supervisor at the agency, and Mr. Bellaire have written the commercials. UPA Pictures produces the films with other credits going to Bill Fuess of UPA and Eddie Dillon, an art director at BBDO.
Mister Magoo, an effective means of personalizing the soft-white bulb featured by GE, has his larynx flexed and his hair trimmed for what may be one of the brighter spots of the fall political maneuvering. GE's counting on him to sell its bulbs.