The Reselling Of the President?

No presidential candidate ever made more use of advertising skills and techniques than Richard Nixon--or employed more former admen as top assistants after attaining office. H.R. Haldeman, Ronald Ziegler and Dwight Chapin, among others in the White House, all came from the advertising industry. Nixon's 1968 campaign script even led to a successful book, The Selling of the President 1968, by Joe McGinniss. It chronicled how Nixon's media men skillfully packaged his assets --and disguised his weaknesses--to present him to the American public.

Last week, as John W. Dean fired away at the President and his former top assistants, McGinniss expressed doubts that any conceivable advertising campaign could resell the President.

"It's a lost cause," the writer said. "They seem to have finally p.r.'d themselves into a corner that they can't p.r. themselves out of. Given his personality and given the amount of evidence that ties him to what's been going on, it seems to me that it's too late for any reselling.

The pit is too deep."

McGinniss's pessimism is not shared by all advertising and public relations experts. TIME asked a number of them how they would handle the President's account today if they had it, and what advice they would give Nixon about rebuilding his image. Excerpts from their suggestions:

> Marion Conrad, who heads her own public relations and communications firm in San Francisco: "People forget details, but they remember a flavor.

This Watergate flavor will be around a long time. Nixon has so few favorable areas left, but one of them is foreign relations. He is running out of countries to visit, but he could get involved in making the U.N. truly effective. Pat is another asset. He could send her off on a trip around the country with a new cause--for example, equal opportunity for women, or for black women."

> Stuart Spencer, president of Spencer-Roberts & Associates, Inc., a Los Angeles public relations and advertising firm: "He has to go on the offensive with a dramatic move. Of course, he could start another war, but I wouldn't recommend it. I would have saved the trip to China, if I knew last year about Watergate, but he still has a couple of areas left for dramatic moves, like the Mideast or inflation."

> Robert Pritikin, president of Pritikin & Gibbons Communications, an advertising agency in San Francisco:

"Image-wise he is terribly stiff. I'd tell him to stop walking down the beach in San Clemente in a necktie and vest. My God, doesn't he ever wear a sweatshirt?"

> Ward Stevenson, a senior vice president of Hill & Knowlton Inc., public relations agency in Los Angeles: "Nixon made a bad mistake by surrounding himself with lawyers and admen. If they had been p.r. men, there would have been no Watergate coverup. We preach admitting mistakes, getting the facts out and the bad publicity behind us. I would encourage a voluntary appearance before the Senate committee, and regular press conferences."

> Fred LaMont, president of PGI, an advertising agency in New York: "It's not too late to tell the truth. I would have him go to the country and lay it all out, emphasizing that what now seems a gigantic conspiracy grew slowly. Have him say, 'Under the incredible pressures of wanting to be a perfect President, a series of small, wrong decisions were made. This is clearly something I've handled badly. We shouldn't have done it that way. We're all in this thing together, and I need your help.' "

Among the few advertising or public relations experts reached by TIME who would now be reluctant to take the President's account were George Karalekas, director of marketing at the Canada Dry Corp., and William Taylor, senior vice president and creative director at Ogilvy & Mather Inc., both of New York. That is somewhat surprising, since they were both members of the November Group, which handled Nixon's re-election campaign advertising last year. Said Karalekas: "I sincerely believed in the President and believed we could do something for the country by getting him reelected. Now the whole thing has been soured by what's happened. I almost wish I hadn't done it." A third former member of the Group, Phil Joanou, senior vice president of Dailey & Associates in Los Angeles, would take the account, he says, but only if the President agreed to use candor as his basic approach to rebuilding his credibility. Declared Joanou: "There is no role for advertising or p.r. It's not the time to create an image; it's time for reality."

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