Tastemakers Getting the Taste

At Chicago's Conrad Hilton hotel, downtown headquarters of the Democratic National Convention, long-stemmed models ankled through the lobby last week in brief bathing suits covered with 375 Pepsi-Cola caps. Coolers loaded with Pepsi were staked out on every important floor, but Coca-Cola coolers won a beachhead at candidates' headquarters and the convention hall. Schenley Industries, Inc.. restricted from dispensing its beverages, fell back on institutional messages ("Since 1933, Schenley Industries, Inc. has spent $200 million with U.S. farmers for grains").

Mixing plugs with politics, the hucksters were making the most of their quadrennial opportunity to woo more than 11,000 delegates, alternates, journalists, wives and hangers-on at the convention. Outside the big hotels, 225 white (for purity) Fords, Lincolns and Mercurys stood by to whisk Democrats in air-conditioned and cost-free comfort to the International Amphitheatre. At the convention hall itself, the party that has not infrequently blasted Big Business let out space for the "American Showcase" promotion display of big business. The 22 advertisers hoped their free-handout booths might be picked up by roving TV cameramen and flashed to 50 million viewers. Their tab ($10 a foot) was a far cry from the $14.2 million which five industrial giants are paying to the three major networks for TV and radio rights at the political shows.*

But never before had U.S. business spent so -much energy to win politicians and newsmen as customers. The theory of the whole promotional scheme was explained by Author Russell (The Tastemakers) Lynes in a publicity primer for businessmen seeking an advertising tie-in with the national convention. Said Democrat Lynes, in rounded Madison Avenue phrases: "Tastemakers are always going places (like Chicago), where they foregather with other tastemakers and come home and tell people about the wonders they have seen. Since they are influential in their communities, peo ple follow their lead."

* CBS gets $5,000,000 from Westinghouse Electric Corp., which cleaned out its inventory after sponsoring the 1952 telecasts; ABC takes some $4,000,000 from Philco Corp.; NBC collects a reported $5,200,000 from Co-Sponsors Radio Corp. of America, Sunbeam Corp., GM's Oldsmobile Division.

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