Subject: Advertisers Aren't Forsaking Ill Endorsers 
Date: Published: 3/19/92 (145 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Marketing & Media -- Advertising:
    Advertisers Aren't Forsaking Ill Endorsers
    ----
    By Joanne Lipman

    When "Odd Couple" star and celebrity endorser Jack Klugman
 lost much of his voice to throat cancer, Eagle Snacks faced a
 tough decision.
    As TV viewers this week will find out, Eagle Snacks and ad
 agency TBWA Advertising chose to stand by their silenced
 star.  In a series of three new ads filmed last week and
 airing now, Mr. Klugman, whose voice has become more gravelly
 than ever, says almost nothing.  Instead, his "Odd Couple"
 co-star Tony Randall does almost all the talking.
    "We weren't going to penalize a guy because he had a bout
 with cancer," says Robert Rosenthal, a senior vice president
 with TBWA, which is shooting yet another three Eagle Snacks
 ads with the pair starting today.  "We were going to find a
 way of making it work."
    In years past, an actor struck by disease, or an athlete
 who was injured, could kiss lucrative endorsement contracts
 goodbye.  But this is the kinder and gentler 1990s -- and
 dropping a sick endorsement star is not only passe, it's just
 plain bad public relations.  So advertisers these days are
 grappling with how to craft ads around their injured
 endorsers.  They're trying to hit on just the right formula to
 propel sales and save face in a single bound.
    Nike pioneered the trend last year when it made athlete Bo
 Jackson's hip injury and his rehabilitation the focus of
 playful ads for its cross-training sneaker line.  Yesterday,
 the athletic shoe giant said it's planning its fourth major
 ad campaign starring the injured Mr. Jackson, despite the
 athlete's impending hip-replacement surgery.
    Basketball star Earvin "Magic" Johnson -- who disappeared
 from ads after his fall announcement that he is infected with
 the virus that causes AIDS -- is about to start production on
 commercials for both Pepsi and Converse, his agent says.  He
 also will appear in a Kraft General Foods in-store Summer
 Olympics promotion, along with fellow Olympic team member
 Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics.
    Certainly, more is at work here than big-hearted sponsors
 holding out a helping hand to endorsers.  The country is
 perceived to have turned its back on the me-first 1980s --
 and advertisers had better follow the trend or risk seeming
 callous to their customers.
    "I'd love to say it's all altruistic," says Martin
 Blackman of Blackman & Raber, a sports marketing firm in New
 York.  "But the bottom line is the protection of the corporate
 image.  In these times, corporate image says you just can't be
 brutal."
    Still, if the endorser ceases to be effective, Madison
 Avenue's new altruism will evaporate fast.  Nike, for one,
 contends that Bo Jackson remains a terrific spokesman because
 he has vowed to return to professional baseball after his
 total hip replacement this summer.  But a Nike spokesman adds
 in the next breath that "if somebody is no longer
 participating in the arena in which they've made their name .
 .  .  in some cases, their value may decline."
    Ad executives also question how loyal advertisers will be
 to Magic Johnson after this summer's Olympic Games, in which
 he plans to participate.  The Converse commercial and Kraft
 General Foods endorsement are both expected to revolve around
 the games in Barcelona, Spain.  But after he hangs up his
 jersey at the end of the Games, Converse has no plans to
 include him in product ads, though it will continue to create
 AIDS-related public service ads in his name.
    In Eagle Snacks' case, when the company learned of Mr. 
 Klugman's throat cancer close to two years ago, it also
 "could easily have approached it from a logical, rational
 point of view" and dumped the actor, says TBWA's Mr. 
 Rosenthal.  Instead, Anheuser-Busch Cos.' salty snack unit
 decided to work around the illness.  It had a strong
 incentive:  The ads were working.  Sales have climbed steadily
 since the "Odd Couple" pair began appearing in ads in 1988,
 and consumer response was strong.
    After surgery made Mr. Klugman's voice raspier, the ad
 agency slowly began giving more and more dialogue to Mr. 
 Randall and less to Mr. Klugman.  For one ad shot in the fall,
 the agency lifted the voice-track from an earlier commercial.
 Some people complained that Mr. Klugman "wasn't really
 talking," Mr. Rosenthal says, "but that's the price you have
 to pay."
    The new ads artfully allow Mr. Klugman's actions to speak
 louder than his words.  One spot features low-brow Mr. Klugman
 being led around an art gallery by Mr. Randall.  "Of course,
 Jack isn't going to talk in an art museum" anyway, says Kevin
 Bowler, Eagle Snacks' president.  In another ad, Mr. Klugman
 faces off in a tortilla-chip eating contest with the
 world-champion chip eater.  Naturally, he can't talk:  His
 mouth is full.
    Although Mr. Klugman may in fact talk a bit in future ads,
 "we feel very comfortable with his pantomime," says Mr. 
 Bowler, who adds that Mr. Klugman had a silent role in one
 award-winning spot well before the illness.
    Dumping Mr. Klugman was never even a consideration, the
 executives say.  "Advertising isn't a science.  It's about
 relationships," Mr. Rosenthal says.  "And the bottom line is,
 we did what we did because it's the right thing to do."
    ---
    FCB Wins Ace Account
    Ace Hardware, Oak Brook, Ill., tapped Chicago agency
 Foote, Cone & Belding Communications for the creative portion
 of its estimated $23 million ad account.
    FCB, which has been coming up empty-handed lately in new
 business, bested the Chicago offices of agencies Bozell and
 Cramer-Krasselt.  Bozell continues to buy media on the
 account.  The creative portion had been handled by Pierson &
 Flynn, Chicago.
    ---
    Ad Notes....
    OGILVY EUROPE:  DHL Worldwide Express, the closely held
 express-delivery company, moved its $25 million ad account in
 Europe and Africa to WPP Group's Ogilvy & Mather Europe.
 Saatchi & Saatchi Co. had handled the account since 1984, DHL
 said.  DHL's U. S. account, handled by the San Francisco office
 of Ketchum Communications, won't be affected by the switch in
 agencies, said a spokeswoman at DHL's U. S. headquarters.
    SAATCHI STAKE:  Morgan Grenfell Group PLC reduced its stake
 in Saatchi & Saatchi to less than 3% from 4.53%, Saatchi
 said.  The investment group had been Saatchi's second-largest
 shareholder as recently as two months ago, when it held a
 5.7% stake.  Morgan Grenfell's move follows by one week a
 $100.7 million pretax loss at the British agency holding
 company.  But Wisconsin Investment Board, the company's
 largest shareholder with a 7.8% stake, remains unswayed.  "The
 company's in line for a good upturn," says Wisconsin's
 international portfolio manager David Herro.
    ACCOUNT:  Amil Gargano & Partners, New York, won its first
 new client since setting up shop last spring, LCI
 International Worldwide Telecommunications, Columbus, Ohio.
 The agency, financed by agency Ally & Gargano, will create
 ads to introduce LCI's residential long-distance service in
 mid-Atlantic states.
    WHO'S NEWS:  Interpublic Group's Lintas:Marketing
 Communications promoted Bradford Tisdale, 53 years old, to
 executive vice president from senior vice president and
 managing director on the Chevrolet account.

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