B. B. B. & H.

Rarely has the disappearance of a radio and television commercial brought complaints from the customers--but that was what happened two years ago when a pair of cartoon characters named Bert and Harry Piel stopped delivering their sudsy-soft sell for Piel's Beer in the New York area. From 1955 to 1960, pompous, pint-sized Bert and his self-conscious older brother Harry (with voices supplied by radio's Ray Goulding and Bob Elliott) fumbled engagingly through ads witty enough to keep chortling viewers out of the bathroom during program breaks. Last week Bert and Harry fans were chortling again. After a painful hiatus, during which Piel's advertising consisted largely of jarring jingles, the struggling Brooklyn brewery--which was bought early this month by South Bend's Drewry's Ltd. U.S.A.--has decided to bring the brothers back.

The return involves some of Madison Avenue's most elaborate brainstorming in years. To explain why Bert and Harry ever went away, Manhattan's Young & Rubicam ad agency has invented a mythical management consultant ("He's sort of a Wharton School of Finance type") who helped oust the brothers because their commercials were undignified. Named E. Gordon Gibbs after Y. & R.'s traffic director, he gets full blame for stepping in as Piel's advertising manager and personally ordering the jarring jingles. Outraged at his lack of taste--and perhaps by Piel's disappointing sales--Bert and Harry now want to return with a popular mandate. To pave the way, Y. & R. fortnight ago took the first of a series of 30-second radio spots purporting to be "paid political announcements" sponsored by the "Citizens' Committee to Bring Back Bert and Harry Piel."

The spots are only an appetizer. Next on the program is a ripsnorting public feud between Gibbs and the Piel brothers. Sound trucks, skywriters and posters will plaster New York with the cabalistic exhortation "B. B. B. & H." (for "Bring Back Bert and Harry"). Next month Gibbs will take on the brothers in three radio debates. Predictably raucous, Bert Piel will charge: "That pantywaist Gibbs doesn't even like beer. If you put an olive in it, he might drink it."

Ultimately, Bert and Harry fans will be urged to choose between Gibbs and the brothers on handy ballots at taverns and supermarkets. The outcome is hardly in doubt. But even after Bert and Harry are back, one problem will remain. Their old cartoons delighted audiences, but from 1958 on did not sell much beer. Now, with Piel's fighting to hold its place as the fourth-selling beer in New York,* Bert and Harry Piel's spiel may be a little hard er. As Bert will say after the election: "The free ride is over. All hitchhikers off. This time we have a new theme: 'I'm laughing with Piel's in my hand.' "

*The top three : Schaefer, Rheingold and Ballantine.

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