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Father David C Streett
AUGUSTA AREA PLANNED ' - ' •'>'.?“
PARENTHOOD ASSOCIATION
RADIO/TV CONTRACEPTIVE ADS NEAR IN CANADA; U.a-.
TO FOLLOW?
It looks like any of a dozen similar television commercials for,
say Clairol or Revlon. A beautiful young lady is laughing as she
playfully lifts a baby over her head. The infant gurgles and
squeals with joy.
Only in this case, the sponsor happens to be pushing
birth-control contraceptive foam, to be exact. While the
commercial in question hasn’t been aired yet, its only one official
nod away from being screened on Canadian television from Goose
Bay to Vancouver. Such an event, say contraceptive producers,
will be a North American first and might lead eventually to radio
and television advertising of birth-control products in Canada and
the U.S. The change won’t occur quickly, however. Many
broadcasters, fearful of the public’s reactions, are skittish.
Indeed, contraceptive makers are still finding it difficult to
place their ads in many newspapers and magazines. When Ortho
Pharmaceutical (Canada) Lts., a subsidiary of Johnson &
Johnson, recently embarked on a campaign for its Delfen
contraceptive foam* it was turned down by 23 of 52 newspapers.
“This type of copy is still too advanced for us to accept at the
moment,” says the advertising manager of a Vancouver
newspaper.
The market for contraceptives in Canada and in the U.S. is
growing. By far the largest amount, about 75% to 80%, is spent
on oral contraceptives, which are prescribed by doctors and aren’t
advertised to the general public. Over-the-counter contraceptives,
which consist mainly of the foam and male prophylactics,
(condoms, or rubbers), account for annual sales of about $4
million in Canada and more than S4O million in the U.S.
A “SMALL EXCEPTION”
Though some contraceptive products have been around a long
time, it was taboo and in some cases even illegal to advertise them
until fairly recently. Emko Co., St. Louis, started advertising its
contraceptive foam in U.S. women’s magazines in 1960 and
recently approached the National Association of Broadcasters,
with a story-board for a proposed television commercial.
“It showed flowers and trees and happy children,” recalls
Jerome Siegel, Emko general manager. “In fact, it was so
innocuous that I’m not sure we’d really want to go with it.” The
NAB, Mr. Siegel says, approved of the ad, with the “small
exception” of the ending-where it mentioned the name of the
company and the product.
Stockton Helffrick, code authority director for the NAB,
implies that the turndown may be only temporary. “I think there
is a widening tolerance in this area, especially now that feminine
vaginal deodorant sprays have been accepted,” he says. A special
subcommittee has been set up to recommend guidelines in the
event that the NAB code review board decides that contraceptive
ads are acceptable. Such a decision could come by the end of the
year.
• But even with NAB sanction, contraceptive advertisers would
find some obstacles in their way. “We don’t accept now, and
don’t see any future possibility of accepting such advertising,”
says a spokesman for the National Broadcasting Co. The other
networks make similar statesments. Ortho Pharmaceutical’s U.S.
unit tried to get around the network blockade by trying to
interest nonaffiliated television stations in taking its 60-second
commercial. “A lot of them said they’d be number two, but they
wouldn’t be the first,” a spokesman says.
STRAIGHTFORWARD AND CLINICAL
That’s where Canada comes in. Until mid-1969 it was illegal to
advertise contraceptive devices there. Since the ban was lifted, the
advertising appears to have caught up with and surpassed its U.S.
counterparts in sophistication and depth of information.
Ortho Canada’s new Delfen foam print ad-the one that has
raised a few hackles in newspaper advertising departments- is large
and straightforward. Its 408 words of copy are clinical in
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Grim
Comedy
The kookiest comedy
director in Hollywood would
reject the script as too utterly
Miculous. He’d be making a
Because the antics of
county officials in the
jfWle Georgia town of Sparta
and in Hancock County add up
J*■fcprality play. And we all
something from it.
The plot - and we warn you
it sounds crazy - gets under
way when white citizens of
Sparta donate money to buy
the town’s six policemen an
arsenal of ten submachine
guns.
What are they going to do
with all that artillery? Is crime
so rampant in the streets of
Sparta that ten submachines
are needed to bring it under
control. Are the Russions
coming? Have the Martians
landed?
Evidently Hancock’s black
county officials, who control
the county commission, have
uneasy suspicions that the
submachine guns weren’t
purchased simply to eliminate
burglars, Russians or Martian
invaders. The commission, with
a touch of grim humor, has
ordered 30 submachine guns
from a Florida firm. The deal
isn’t final yet, but black
Commission Chairman George
Lott says the people, especially
black people, “have got to the
place where they never want to
be caught with nothing.”
Meanwhile a black
organization, The Sporting
Rangers, has been set up to
“enhance radio communica
tion, hunting, fishing,
marksmanship and camping,
and to participate in rescue
missions of all descriptions.”
These good folk in Sparta
and Hancock County seem to
share the great American
delusion that the gun is finally
better than common sense,
reason and patience when it
comes to solving certain kinds
of problems. They are not
alone. Hundreds of thousands
of others in our country if
recent statistics are reliable
describing the product, its effectiveness and how it works.
Ortho’s proposed television ad with mother and baby is quite
different. One version doesn’t even mention the word
“contraceptive” but stresses “have ti/he to enjoy your child.”
“We know we’re not selling Campbell’s Soup so we have to take
the soft approach,” says Rod L. MacKenzie, president of Ortho
Canada.
The ad has been cleared by Canada’s food and drug directorate
and now just needs approval from the Canada Radio-Television
Commission. “We don’t have guidelines about what constitutes
good taste in contraceptive advertising since no one approached
us before,” says Jean-Marc Demers, assistant legal counsel.
“There’s nothing to prevent such an ad from a legal standpoint
now, but the full commission will have to rule on it from the
standpoint of acceptability.” That is expected this month.
The commission also has to rule on proposed 6-second radio
commericals submitted by Julius Schmid of Canada Lts., maker
of male prophylactics. The company’s no-nonsense print ads offer
coupon clippers “the how-not-to book” on birth-control
methods. The radio ads, already accepted on a conditional basis
by a Toronto station, stress “reliable contraception,” proven
quality,” and the prevention of venereal disease.
Bohdan Barna, executive vice president of Schmid’s agency,
Firth & Bakosky Advertising Lts. of Toronto, says the agency was
faced with the task of changing the image of the product. “For
years it has been associated with illicit sex and has been the
subject of barron jokes,” says Mr. Barna. Now, with a changing
morality-and the fact that venereal disease is at epidemic
proportions-rather explicit ads are running in scores of
newspapers and in such establishment bastions as the Chadian
edition of Reader’s Digest. In Toronto, 41 billboards promote the
product.
The companies and their agencies claim they have received few
complaints from the public. “We’re over any concern about
public acceptance,” says Albert Knowles, general manager of
Schmid Canada. “Our next concern is whether all this will pay
off.”
This was taken from an article in the Wall Street Journal of
7/9/71.
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Coalition seeks investigation
into George Jackson's death
‘ YORK - A coalition
jofessional, civic, and
vnurch organizations,
concerned over “a serious crisis
in the administration of justice
and penal systems in this
country.” has asked for an
investigation into the San
Quentin Prison death of
George Jackson and the
treatment of inmates there
following his death.
The Coalition of Concerned
Black Americans called on the
Commission off Inquiry - an
interracial volunteer group of
distinguished citizens including
former Supreme Court Justice
Arthur Goldberg and former
United States Attorney
General Ramsey Clark - too
initiate such an investigation
and to publish its findings.
The coalition request was
sent to Professor Herbert O.
Reid, executive director of the
Commission of Inquiry.
“We have been especially
concerned with the nature of
this crisis (in the
administration of justice and
penal systems) as it affects the
black community,” the
coalition letter to Professor
feel the same way.
As long as people continue
to let fear dominate their lives,
as long as they continue to put
their ultimate faith in the gun
instead of the brain and the
heart, we’ve all got a big
problem.
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Reid said.
For though we see the crisis
as national in its breadth, if
falls with particular heaviness
upon blacks and other
non-white persons.
“The recent events at San
Quentin in California
surrounding the death of
George Jackson and the
problems within the prison *
which followed in the wake of
these events indicate that the
crisis is deepening.”
The letter took special note
of “what appears to be the
conflicting official versions of
what occurred” at San
Quentin, adding that “the
reports of wholesale physical
abuse of prisoners by guards
after Jackson’s death, as
reported by inmates and their
attorney, is also greatly
distressing.
“Here again, the official
version of what is going on
does not coincide with other
sources of information.”
The Commission of Inquiry
was formed to look into
circumstances surrounding the
slaying of Fred Hampton and
Mark Clark in the Chicago
police raid on a Black Panther
apartment in December, 1970,
and is credited with having
played a significant role in
bringing about recent
indictments of law
enforcement officials in
connection with that raid.
“In many respects,” the -
letter said, “we recognize
similarities in the type of
climate that now exists in
connection with George
Jackson’s death, with that of
sentiment in our communities
surrounding the deaths of Fred
Hampton and Mark Clark.”
For thi reason, the coalition
statement said, “we feel than
an investigation by such a
broadly representative, highly
competent, private body is
precisely what the present
situation demands.”
The Coalition and
Concerned Black Americans
includes the National
Conference of Black Lawyers,
the Committee of Concerned
Afrq-American Academics, and
the National Committee of
Black Churchmen.
|MRegister
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Its coordinating committee
is composed of Haywood
Burns, executive director of
the National Conference of
Black Lawyers; Professor Keith
Baid and Dr. Jewell Gresram of
the Committee of Concerned
Afro-American Academics;
The Rev. J. Metz Rollins,
executive director of the
National COmmittee of Black
Churchmen; Father Robert
Chapman, member of the
National Committee of Black
Churchmen and executive
director, Department of Social
Justice, National Council of
Churches;
The Rev. Gayraud S.
Wilmore Jr., and Mrs. Sophia
Laßusso, both members of the
National Committee of Black
Churchmen and executives of
the United Presbyterian
Council on Church and Race.
MORRIS CAFE
1812 Milledgeville Rd.
Open 7 a.m. ll p.m.
Serving breakfast & dinner
6 days per week
Mr. & Mrs. Morris, Prop.
Please come to see us.
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News-Review - September 30, 1971
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