Spiel for Piel

One of the most effective hucksters on eastern TV is a bashful botcher who muffs his lines, meanders off-camera, even mumbles his apologies for intruding on TViewers' time. His name: Harry Piel. Since January, when Harry and Brother Bert made their debut in a series of cartoon commercials plugging Brooklyn's Piel Brothers' beer, they have won such fame that even the most blurb-worn viewers are changing their ways: instead of ducking out when the commercial goes on, Easterners are now turning on their sets to catch the Piel cartoons. Last week, in response to heavy fan mail, Piel announced that it would take space in its Manhattan newspaper ads to list stations and times when the 20-second and 60-second beer commercials can be seen.

The charm of the cartoons, which are animated by the UFA ("Mr. Magoo") studios, lies in the bungling earnestness with which the bottle-bald brothers lampoon the standard TV sales talk, e.g., with slogans such as "Throat-wise, it's delicious.'' Plotwise, the fictional Piel boys, whose lines are spoken by radio's Bob (Elliott) and Ray (Goulding), are a study in opposites. Pint-sized Bert is a gabby, obnoxious supersalesman who shouts his commercials, scolds the audience and continually squelches Stringbean Harry. After a few seconds of bumptious Bert, viewers feel so sorry for well-meaning Harry that they listen carefully to every word he has to say. A New Jersey woman even wrote in to upbraid the brewery for the "loud, offensive" way in which Bert bullies his brother.

Bert and Harry are the brain children of Young & Rubicam Copywriter Ed Graham Jr., 27, who has written elaborate biographies for each of the brothers, and talks of them as intimately as if they had all attended P.S. 3 in Flatbush together. Graham explains that Blatherskite Bert is patterned after a retired Young & Rubicam account executive, is "a compulsive pain who can't help stepping on people." Hesitant Harry is modeled on Artist Jack Sidebotham, who drew the brothers, but also bears a marked resemblance to Ed Graham. Envious of Piel's success, two other breweries are planning similar cartoon commercials.

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