Ailing Bert & Harry

For five years the softest sell on East Coast TV and radio opened with a gruff, bullying "Hello viewers, I'm Bert Piel and this is my brother Harry." Cartoon characters created by UPA (Mr. Magoo) and given voice by radio's Bob (Elliott) & Ray (Goulding), Boisterous Bert and Harried Harry were pitchmen for Piel's Beer--and invariably the pitch went awry. The lights failed during a taste-test, the man-in-the-street interview turned up a long-winded Piel's fan who would not let Bert get his motivational research questions in edgewise, the labels got switched during a beer test and Brand X's foam lasted longer. Bert and Harry not only spoofed Piel's but Madison Avenue itself, put a new twist in kidding commercials.

The viewers (Bert invariably addressed the radio audience as "radio viewers") loved it, and for three years Piel's sales set new records.

But last summer, largely because of the cool weather, sales hit a plateau, and Piel's looked around for an old-fashioned hard sell in the form of a jingle. Bert and Harry were seen less and less. Last week their $100,000 annual contract, owned by Goulding, Elliott and Edward Graham, the team's scriptwriter, expired. Young & Rubicam, Piel's advertising agency, did not renew it, instead tried to negotiate a new one for fewer commercials. Y. & R. explained that even though televiewers tuned in to programs just to hear the Bert and Harry ad, they did not necessarily reach most beer drinkers. Since Piel's owns the cartoon's format, once their already prepared skits are run through they will either join the ranks of the permanently unemployed and unemployable or Bert and Harry will move over to new producers to continue at half speed. Bert and Harry's loyal viewers immediately began to complain. Answered Y. & R.: "Esoterically, it was the most successful commercial of all time. But more beer drinkers will buy from the jingle."

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