Russians Advertise On Japanese TV

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32308, 28 May 1970, Page 3

Russians Advertise On Japanese TV

(By

BERNARD KRISHER)

(Newsweek Feature Service) TOKYO—The animated cartoon commercial has a certain glossy charm. It opens as a Walt Disney-like bullfighter switches on a colour television set in front of a timid bull. The set produces a bright red. The bull snorts and charges the set. He hits it head-on,, bounces back and falls to the ground. Following this soft-sell testimonial to the set’s vivid colour and durability, there is an exhortation to buy the Rubin IM. The Rubin 101? Even in Japan, where the television commercial is appearing on thousands of home screens these days, the Rubin 101 is virtually unknown. But then, even less known as a television sponsor is the outfit behind the commercial—the All-Soviet Advertising Corporation.

Surprisingly, in view of the derision they’ve long heaped on advertising as a pernicious tool of capitalism, the Soviets are now going the way of Madison Avenue. For the first time ever, they are sponsoring a commercial television programme

i It’s called the “Soviet Hour” and, complete with advertisement, it is beamed out each week over Osaka’s Asahi Broadcasting Company to a potential audience of some 18 million (or one-fifth of Japan’s population). The programme, which is tied in with Russia’s Expo ’7O exhibit at Osaka, consists chiefly of I sports and cultural events : along with some stolid (travelogues. The commercials, dubbed I iin Japanese, come on at the! beginning and the end of the I (show to promote everything! (from soft drinks to autos.l '“We don’t interrupt the programme with a commercial,"! says a Soviet official. “This is unfair to the viewer." For a first try, the com-l Imercials are actually rather good. They do occasionally smack of amateurism; the transitions between the pro-) gramme and the commercials. I for instance, are ragged. But the Soviets have obviously 'been studying Madison

Avenue’s techniques because the commercials are close to America’s in their use of background music, romantic appeal, exaggeration, practical application and both hard sell and soft sell. They frequently employ humour. In an advertisement for Soviet ice cream, for example, a cartoon wolf is so captivated by Little Red Riding Hood’s ice cream that he eagerly devours it and leaves Little Red Riding Hood herself undigested. Another commercial brightly emphasises the potency of Russian vodka. In it, an auto driven by a young woman comes to a halt. The woman pulls out a bottle of vodka and mixes a cocktail of vodka and gasoline. She then pours ’the concoction into the gas tank and the car roars forward, leaving all the other autos, driven by men, in its dust. The Russian’s idealogical distaste for advertising began to relent on the home market a few years ago when the Kremlin realised it was the most effective way to move consumer goods. So Kirov Street, Moscow’s equivalent of Madison Avenue, has been busy of late turning out advertisements for sewing machines, fountain pens, candy and the like. “We cannot forget the legacy of the great Lenin,” reasoned a recent article in

the Russian publication “ Literatumaya Gazeta. ” “Namely—if it is necessary, learn from the capitalists and (know how to take over from (them everything wise and .profitable that can be used I for the building of Commu-I Inism.” If their commercials in (Japan are successful, the> I Soviet advertisers may expand' [showings to other parts of I Japan and some day, perhaps, to many other parts of the world as well. But there are a few wrinkles that the advertising men on Kirov Street had better iron out first. A Soviet trade office phone (number that is given with each commercial, presumably for the benefit of potential importers, is announced only once and so rapidly that few people can catch it. That may he just as well, however. When one recent caller finally reached the number after constantly encountering a busy signal, no-one in the office knew anything much about the products the Russians had gone to such trouble to advertise.

CHTV3 2.00 p.m.: Headline news. 2.03: On Camera. 2.45: The Doris Day Show—" The Antique.” 3.10: Transtel Magazine. 3.24: The Galloping Gourmet. Cooking. 3.48: Country Calendar. (Repeat). 4.06: Playschool. 4.31: Rocket Robin Hood. Cartoon. 4.49: Hound for Hire. Cartoon. 4.57: Marine Boy. Cartoon. 5.20: Headline news, weather. 5.22: Men in History—“ The Vikings.” 5.46: Daktari—“Licensed to Kill.” Adventure. 6.40: Gardening With John Oliver. 7.00: Network news. 7.15: Weather. The South Tonight. 7.40: Coronation Street. 8.10: The Andy Williams Show (Mary Hopkin, Tony Joe White). 9.08: Newsbrief. 9.10: Gallery. Current Affairs. 9.38: The Bold Ones—“ Crisis.” 10.32: World in Action—“ The Nanceuke Dossier.” 11.00: Late news, weather.

NATIONAL LINK [lncluding 3YA, Christchurch <690 kilocycles); 2YA. Wellington (570 kilocycles); 4YA, Dunedin <7BO kilocycles): end 3YZ, Greynioulh (920 kilocycles).) 7.30 p.m.: In Your Garden This Week. 3YA, Laurie Metcalf. Other Stations: Musical Interlude. 7.45: Star Time in Paris. 8.0: The Land of the (Shamrock. 8.30: Weather and News. 9.0: Mount Roskill Municipal Band. 9.30: The Archers. 3YZ, 9.30: West Coast Top Ten. 10.0: Night Surgeon. 10.30: News. 10.45: (The Time Machine (6). 11.00: I 8.8. C. News and Commentary 12.0: N.Z.B.C. ’ News and Weather. 12.6 p.m.: Pick of the Goons. 1.0: Melody Time from Germany. 3.3: Short Story. 4.9: The Frank Sinatra (Story.

3YC, CHRISTCHURCH (960 kilocycles) 7.0 p.m.: Alison Maloney (soprano), Barry Margan (piano). Rachmaninov: Vocalise. Rimsky-Korsakov: The Rose and the Nightingale. I Nature’s Voice, Southern (Night, The Phantom Ship (N.Z.8.C.). 7.19: Goldmark: Symphony, Rustic WeddingNew York Philharmonic Orchestra under Leonard Bernstein (new record). 8.3: [Faure: Impromptu Osian i Ellis (harp). 8.12: The Gifted (Child: John C. Gowan, Projfessor of Education and Guidance at San Fernando State College, University of California, has been visiting (lecturer in the Education (Department, University of Canterbury. One of his fields

lis the gifted child. In an I interview with Bernard Smyth he describes some of the special qualities of gifted children, their problems and educational needs. (8.30: Austrian Radio Concert. Scholium: Contrast, Op. 56. Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat (K.s9s)—Friedrich Guida (piano), Austrian Radio Symphony under Milan Horvat. 9.14: Vaughan Williams: Five Tudor Portraits—(l) The Tunning of Elinor Rumming, (2) My Pretty Bess, (3) Epitaph on John Jayberd of Diss, (4) Jane Scroop, (5) Jolly Rutterkin, Elisabeth Bainbridge (contralto), John Carol Case (baritone), Bach Choir, New Philharmonia Orchestra under David Willcocks (new record). 10.0: Bliss: Miracle in the Gorbals, suite from the ballet (1944)—New Philharmonia Orchestra under Sir Arthur Bliss (8.8. C. 10.21: J. G. Goldberg: Concerto for harpsichord and strings—Eliza Hansen (harpsichord), Ludwigshafen String Orchestra under Christoph Stepp. 3ZB, CHRISTCHURCH (1100 kilocycles) 7.2 p.m.: Hitwave ’7O. 8.2: Records on the Air. 8.30: Thursday Night with George Taylor. 10.2: Looking Back. 3ZM, CHRISTCHURCH (1400 kilocycles)

< 7.30 p.m.: Themes from Spy Thrillers. 8.0: Island ; Music. 8.30: Whipped Cream and other Alpert Delights. 9.0: Judy and Loretta Lynn. 9.30: That Good Old Rock ’n’