The $16 Million Challenge

"My hand is not shaking. I am not weeping or hiding under my desk. I am cheerful and alert. I face life with optimism. This agency will go on." Such was the almost joyful reaction of Executive Vice President Charles Brower of Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn last week as he announced the loss of Revlon, Inc.'s $8,000,000 account.

All Madison Avenue knew exactly how Brower felt. It was like coming out of the trenches to blighty and peace on earth. Even as they panted after Revlon, the most dynamic cosmetic-maker in the U.S., veteran admen gulped their Gibsons nervously at the thought of also taking on Revlon's rambunctious President Charles Revson, 50, the most feared, cheered and jeered advertising client since the late George Washington Hill of American Tobacco fearlessly sent Lucky Strike green to war.

Kicked, pulled and pushed by restless Charlie Revson, Revlon's sales have leaped from $16 million to $86 million in only eight years. Revlon claims that its paints (Persian Melon, Fire and Ice, Say It With Rubies) and powders (Love Pat, Touch and Glow) adorn the faces of more U.S. women than those of any other maker. Its TV programs ($64,000 Question and $64,000 Challenge) have become contemporary Americana. But all the while Charlie Revson, who will spend $16 million on advertising this year, feuded bitterly with the admen and used nine separate agencies in 13 years. Few other advertisers can make that claim.

No Crumbs. The war began in 1944, when Revlon's then small $600,000 account was first snagged by McCann-Erickson's John McCarthy--who lasted a stormy six months with Revson. The two men finally fell out over McCarthy's dirty fingernails. When Revson needled him, McCarthy snapped: "What do you want me to do, use nail polish?" Revson laughed--and ordered McCarthy thrown off the account. Now executive editor of the Catholic Digest, McCarthy, who still has dirty fingernails, says freely and even admiringly: "Charlie is a genius. He is also a bombastic, terribly hardworking, frantic guy who just chews people .up. Unless you can bully him when he's wrong, you're through." McCarthy wonderingly describes an agency meeting with Client Revson: "It started in the afternoon. Around 7 a waiter from Longchamps came in to serve his dinner. Not a crumb of food was offered to anyone else at the table. The meeting went on through the night." A perfectionist, Revson can talk for hours over the exact shade of red he wants in an ad.

After Revson had chewed up a reported 18 account executives, McCann-Erickson got tired of the slaughter and parted company with him in 1948. Revlon shifted to the William Weintraub agency, where, said one adman, "Bill Weintraub knew how to handle Revson; he just outshouted him, and everything was fine." Then Weintraub's Norman B. Norman, who holds the record (seven years) for working personally with Revson, bought out Weintraub to form his own Norman, Craig & Kummel agency. But no sooner did Norman buy the rights to the $64,000 Question for Revlon than trouble began. Says Norman: "After watching it the first night, Revson told me to cancel the show because it was the worst trash he'd ever seen. He so frightened me that I sat up with him until 3 in the morning."

The show boosted Revlon sales 50% in one year, but things got worse in the advertising end. Norman claims that Revson refused to pay him the standard 15% fee (some $150,000 yearly) on talent used on the show. Revson's brother Martin, the only Revson who would comment last week, insists that the Norman agency was dropped because it began handling a rival show, The Big Surprise. Snapped Martin: "Norman is just a mere infant, that's all. He should shut up." Whatever the truth, Charlie Revson and Norman did not get along. "Revson has good ad sense," says Norman, "but he has to be forced. The Fire and Ice promotion was put over his dead body, even though it was the best ad he ever had."

No Grey Flannels. The Revlon account had hit $6,000,000 when Revson last year abandoned Norman, Craig & Kummel, badly rocking the agency (1956 billings: $25.8 .million). Before he shifted completely to BBDO, fourth-biggest agency (1956 billings: $194.5 million), Revson took the precaution of siphoning off part of his business to three smaller firms. But the big problems flowed into BBDO along with Revson. The biggest was the fact that Client Revson demanded top-quality advertising and simply worked too hard for the admen to keep up. The weary admen began agreeing with Revson's bad ideas as well as his good ones in order to crawl home to the wife and kiddies. His brand of rugged individualism overpowered those accustomed to the grey-flanneled politeness of modern, managerial-type clients.

Despite the casualty list, nobody could take away the astonishing success carved by Revson. Last week he estimated 1957 Revlon earnings at between $3.35 and $3.50 a share on sales of $90 million, up from $3.14 a share last year. With his brother Martin, executive vice president, Charles Revson owns 950,000 (worth $25 million) of Revlon's nearly 2,670,000 shares (Senior Vice President Charles Lachman, who is represented by the "l" in Revlon, owns 525,000). With that much financial stake in his own company, Revson expects a lot from Madison Avenue. Small Warwick & Legler (1956 billings: $14.5 million) is expected to get the biggest slice of BBDO's lost account. As for BBDO, said cheery Charlie Brower: "I'll just go out and get eight new $1,000,000 accounts."

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