Image Campaigns Try to Win Hearts by Showing Another Side

When the agency that creates ads for Penthouse asked to sit in on some of the magazine’s story conferences last year, editors were baffled. After all, everyone knows what Penthouse is: a magazine filled with pictures of women in kinky poses. Who cares what stories are squeezed in between the pictures?

Well, the New York ad agency Smith/Greenland did.

“Penthouse had a problem,” said Leo Greenland, chairman of the firm that also creates those provocative billboard ads for Johnnie Walker Scotch. “The problem wasn’t just one of misconception, it was also one of recognition.”

Recognition by whom? Advertisers. Ad sales were way off. And scores of major advertisers refused to be associated with the magazine. How to change its image? Penthouse wasn’t about to mess around with its content. But its agency decided to promote, in trade journals, the message that Penthouse was also doing some investigative journalism.

One print ad about its investigation into the Ku Klux Klan pictured two hooded Klan members above the headline “Not everyone under a sheet in Penthouse is in the mood for love.” Another ad, about its story on the war on drugs, featured a picture of a drug bust. The headline: “Some of the biggest busts Penthouse uncovers aren’t the kind you think they are.”

Can an advertising campaign successfully change--or improve--the image of a product?

“First, there must be credibility with the product itself,” said Jeffrey B. Hirsch, president of Venice-based Hirsch Marketing. “If the product cannot deliver on the new image that the advertiser is trying to communicate, it will be doomed to failure.”

Besides Penthouse, plenty of other companies have recently unleashed campaigns that try to improve their images. Last week, the Wall Street Journal began a print campaign in the advertising trade magazines in an effort to convince advertisers that its readers aren’t just on Wall Street. And for nearly five years, Rolling Stone has spent heavily on a tongue-in-cheek campaign that relies on contrasting images to convey the message that its readers who once made purchases with pockets full of change now flash American Express cards.

During the past year, E&J; Gallo Wineries has spent millions on a campaign to convince consumers that it can make fine wines. And Club Med is pumping millions of dollars into a campaign to inform aging baby boomers that it is no longer just a place for swinging singles.

Can these efforts work? Penthouse hasn’t done half bad. Its ad campaign is about a year old. Although most magazines are seeing substantial dips in ad sales, Penthouse linage is up 5.1% for the first half of 1990, compared to the same period in 1989. Bear in mind that Playboy has seen an 11.4% drop during the same period.

It’s a long way from Penthouse to the Wall Street Journal, but the financial newspaper has also begun to run ads in which it refers to itself in bold print as “the wild and crazy Wall Street Journal.” How wild? Well, the ads point out that 83% of its subscribers don’t even work in the financial field. The ads also note that 42% of its subscribers are under age 45.

Since the stock market crash of October, 1987, the Journal has seen a big drop in its financial services advertising. And for the first five months of 1990, overall ad sales were down 4.6%, compared to the same period in 1989, said Kenneth Burenga, senior vice president at Dow Jones. “The campaign says there’s more to the Wall Street Journal than financial statistics and numbers,” said Burenga.

But perhaps the most successful recent image-changing campaign is the one that Gallo introduced about a year ago. Using the slogan “It will change the way you think about Gallo,” the company has invested millions of dollars to convince baby boomers that it’s no embarrassment to serve Gallo wine.

“The challenge was to convey that message,” said Dan Solomon, Gallo’s communications director.

How to do it? “We had to be believable,” said Clifford Einstein, president of the Los Angeles agency Dailey & Associates. “It was necessary for us to construct our message in a way that showed we understood that this may not have been the way people perceived Gallo.”

The ads show upwardly mobile couples who, at first, show surprise when Gallo wine is served at a gathering. The campaign appears to have succeeded. Gallo has quickly become the nation’s largest seller of varietal wines.

“This kind of advertising is not something we invented,” Einstein said. “It’s classical stuff. The trick is to be consistent, and to do it for a long time.”

Carl’s Jr. Prepares to Grill Ad Agencies

Carl’s Jr. is giving West Coast agencies the chance to swallow its estimated $20-million advertising business.

For five years, the Los Angeles office of Della Femina, McNamee WCRS has created ads for the Anaheim fast-food chain. Although Della Femina will still be part of the review, the company has sent letters announcing the search to a number of Southern California agencies, said a Carl’s spokeswoman, who declined to state a reason for the review. Peter Stranger, president of Della Femina’s Los Angeles office was unavailable for comment late Monday.

Dreyfus Campaign Won’t Tax Bush

Dreyfus has read George Bush’s lips. But it’s still not about to poke fun of him in its print ad campaign that features photos of Presidents above their comments about keeping taxes down.

Some Presidents have succeeded in their promises about taxes--while others failed. And even though Bush last week indicated that the size of the federal deficit may require additional taxes, Dreyfus has no plans to add his picture to the ad. “It wouldn’t be appropriate,” said a Dreyfus spokesman.

“We created tax-free funds. Then again, we had a lot of inspiration,” says the headline above the long-running Dreyfus ad that shows mugs of Presidents from Dwight Eisenhower to Ronald Reagan.

Medical Center Picks a New Ad Doctor

When Rick Colby was treated for cancer at UCLA Medical Center, the farthest thing from his mind was creating advertising for the center.

Now, 13 years later--and with his cancer apparently cured--Colby’s Los Angeles agency, Larsen Colby Koralek/LHS&B;, has won the medical center’s ad business, which is valued at less than $1 million annually. “When we first went over there to pitch the business,” Colby said, “they knew I was intimately familiar with their facility.”

The print campaign is an attempt to change a common misconception that the highly regarded medical center is open only to the elite. One new print ad shows a stack of medical school textbooks. “Getting to be a UCLA doctor isn’t easy,” the ad says. “Getting an appointment to see one is.”

Silo Hires Saatchi for L.A. Invasion

Few people in Los Angeles are familiar with the Silo home electronics chain. But they soon will be, if the Los Angeles agency Saatchi & Saatchi DFS/Pacific does its job.

The agency last week won the estimated $5-million advertising business for the giant electronics retailer Silo Inc., which plans to open 16 stores in Los Angeles during the next year. “By the time we’re done with the campaign,” said Joe Cronin, president of the agency, “we hope as many people know Silo as Circuit City.”

Schroffel Checks In With Aston Hotels

Schroffel & Associates doesn’t offer room service yet, but last week the Los Angeles agency picked up its third--and largest--hotel client. It won the estimated $2-million business for the five Mexican hotel properties of Aston Hotels and Resorts.

Schroffel already creates ads for Biltmore and the Lake Arrowhead Hilton. Aston, which is best-known for operating condominiums in Hawaii, recently expanded into the Mexican cities of Cancun, Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta.

How big could the account grow? Said Bruce Schroffel, agency president, “They plan to eventually be in every resort market in Mexico.”

Absolut Vodka Puts Own Stamp on Ads

The makers of Absolut Vodka may soon be taking their licks for a new ad. The company has inserted a series of stickers--closely resembling postage stamps--into 400,000 issues of the current issue of New Yorker magazine.

Instead of pictures of famous people, however, these stamps have drawings by famous artists of Absolut Vodka bottles. The stamps appear over the headline “Absolut First Class.”

The key question: Will some people attempt to use these stamps in place of legitimate postage?

“To save 25 cents, some people will try anything,” said Richard Costello, president of the New York agency behind the campaign, TBWA Advertising. “Others will probably try it just to see if they can get something past the post office.”