The Cantankerous CEBUs

Televiewers know what they do when the commercial comes on the screen, but sponsors hate to believe it. In Detroit last week, executives of the Ford Motor Co. brooded over the results of a ten-city survey in which 2,600 set owners were quizzed within 30 minutes of the time five TV programs (Zane Grey Theater, Tennessee Ernie Ford Show, G.E. Theater, Ford Theater, DuPont Cavalcade) went off the air. The first jolt was the discovery that only 10.3% of the sample (270 people) had seen the shows in question. The next was the discovery that fully 31% of the viewers promptly left the room when the announcer began speaking of the product. Surprisingly, women proved more fidgety than men and far more likely (24% to 18%) to leave the room or switch to other channels even when the blurb (for an electric iron) was tailored to their tastes. Even worse, another 23% earned the right to a new designation: CEBU. A CEBU (short for "Continuously Exposed But Unverified") is a TViewer who looked at the blurb and listened to the message, but 30 minutes later could not remember a single detail of what he had heard and seen.

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