Public Service Ads Are Shockers

Debra Kimpel doesn’t remember much about the accident. But seconds after her car was broadsided by a drunken driver, the bones on the left side of her face crumbled into nearly 500 pieces.

One year later, her face is still ravaged with scars. And when people in her home town of Spokane, Wash., turn on their television sets, they see a public service commercial that doesn’t just tell the tale--it shows the results. The ad, written and produced by her sister Jana, first shows photographs of the 34-year-old, part-time actress before the accident. Then, Kimpel faces the camera. “Sure, it’s awful to look at people who are deformed,” said Debra Kimpel, in an interview. “This has got to be a rude awakening to a lot of people.”

Brett Borders wasn’t in an auto accident. But a print ad shows the 19-year-old college student seated in a wheelchair. A touch-up artist made it look like he lost part of both arms in a car crash. The ad was first placed in college newspapers throughout Oregon, and has since appeared in Reader’s Digest. “Kids think they are invincible, so we had to come up with something that would be worse to a kid than death,” said Bill Borders, Brett’s father and president of the Portland, Ore.-based ad firm, Borders, Perrin & Norrander. The firm agreed to produce the ad as a favor to a client whose relative was killed by a drunk driver.

Both the Kimpel and Borders ads were produced on a shoestring, originally distributed in local markets and then picked up nationally. They have won lots of awards. And they signal a trend in traditionally ho-hum public service advertising that is raising some industry eyebrows--shock.

Shock isn’t new to advertising. But its use in public service announcements increased on a national scale last year when the Advertising Partnership for a Drug Free America began bombarding the media with a hard-hitting, $1.5 billion anti-drug campaign. One recent ad shows a junkie snorting cocaine on the floor of a men’s room stall. To compete for attention with this kind of hit-’em-in-the-gut advertising, groups trying to combat drunk driving have turned to advertising at its most shocking.

“Public service spots are getting more graphic than any I’ve ever seen,” said Robert Keim, president of the Ad Council, the New York-based clearing house of nearly half the nation’s public service advertisements. “But I’m not sure if this is the right way to go. It may be the easy way out.”

One public service director at an ABC affiliate in Spokane was so startled by the Kimpel ad that she only scheduled it very late in the evening. “But the first week it ran,” said Dianne Armstrong, “I got deluged with calls from people who wanted it on earlier so their kids could see it.”

Already, some ad agencies are turning away from the gore in public service ads and trying wry humor instead. “The way to break through the onslaught of shocking public service ads isn’t with more blood and guts,” said Jim Ferguson, copy supervisor at the Leo Burnett ad agency in Chicago. So, the agency’s new seat belt spots for the Transportation Department feature a couple of wisecracking dummies. In one spot, a crash dummy flies through a windshield, then turns to the camera and comments: “Don’t wear your safety belt and you get a much better view of the road.”

British Firm to Create Biggest U.S. Ad Agency

In a merger that will create the biggest U.S. advertising agency, Saatchi & Saatchi PLC, a British holding company, said Monday that it will merge two of its own New York agencies and lay off nearly 125 employees.

The new agency, which combines Saatchi & Saatchi Compton Inc. with Dancer Fitzgerald Sample Inc., will be called Saatchi & Saatchi DFS Compton Inc., and post annual billings of $2.3 billion. Young & Rubicam, with annual domestic billings of $1.25 billion, is listed by the trade magazine Adweek as the nation’s largest ad agency.

Gary M. Susnjara, who was named chairman of the operation, will have to deal immediately with at least one conflict: The new company would be handling some advertising for both Toyota and American Motors’ Jeep. To resolve the conflict, Saatchi executives tentatively hope to turn the Jeep account over to another Saatchi agency that does not have an automobile account--possibly William Esty Co.

Stephanie Edwards Is Still a Lucky Woman

Her role may be diminished, but Stephanie Edwards still considers herself a Lucky woman.

Over the past five years, the actress and local television talk show co-host has filmed more than 50 television ads and hundreds of radio spots for Lucky Stores, reminding people that Lucky is the “low price leader.” But Lucky’s $30-million account is now being handled by a new ad agency--Los Angeles-based Grey Advertising. And in its first Lucky television spot, Edwards is only on screen at the tail end of the commercial.

“I don’t count on this lasting forever,” said Edwards. “I’ve already had three more years then anyone could have expected.” Grey, however, does want Edwards to stick around--at least for awhile. “Lucky has a real franchise in her,” said Miles Turpin, president of Grey’s West Coast division. Just how strong is her credibility? Edwards says that she usually does her own grocery shopping at a Lucky store in Santa Monica. “People follow me right up to the checkout counter to see if I pay for my own groceries,” she said. “I do.”

Ice Cream Treats for ATM Users

This summer, automated teller machines at Mitsubishi Bank of California will be available in 31 flavors.

In a bid to boost customer use of its automated teller machines, each receipt from the company’s Southern California ATMs will be redeemable during July and August for a regular-sized, 89-cent ice cream cone at Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream.

Since the bank has placed no limits on the promotion, customers who are ice cream junkies may be tempted to load up on the freebies by making plenty of pint-sized deposits and withdrawals.

“That’s not a real concern of ours,” said Rian Lidschin, vice president of marketing at Mitsubishi Bank. “We just want them to start using the machines.”

Commuters Are Seeing Elephants on Freeway

It’s a zoo out there on the freeway. Los Angeles area commuters are seeing elephants aplenty on their daily drives to work. The elephants are on a series of three freeway billboards--each placed just a few hundred yards apart--that promote the San Diego Zoo. The zoo’s newest ad campaign, created by its longtime advertising agency, San Diego-based Phillips-Ramsey, “will be remembered for a long time,” said Bob Kwait, executive vice president at the agency.

And the zoo’s new slogan: “Unforgettable.”

Lakers Continue to Score Big--in Ads

The basketball season may be over, but a few Los Angeles Lakers are still scoring big--in advertisements. Just as Super Bowl and America’s Cup winners did before him, Magic Johnson is pitching both Disneyland and Walt Disney World on television. And Laker Coach Pat Riley’s smiling mug is appearing this month in print ads in Time and Sports Illustrated for Transamerica Life Cos.

Transamerica’s $2-million campaign broke earlier this month, just as the Lakers began battling the Boston Celtics for the world championship. The Disney ads were filmed at the Forum next to the Laker bench during the final seconds of the championship game. What’s on tap for Disney’s next ad? “Probably the World Series winner,” said Thomas Elrod, vice president of marketing for Walt Disney World Co., “or maybe the next Miss America.”