The Copycats

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, advertising men are becoming more sincere than usual these days. No longer content to emulate merely the mood of a competitor's ad, some have turned to more precise copycatting.

Carl Ally Inc. started a campaign late last year for Northeast Airlines, using the slogan"Northeast addresses itself to the whole man." Ads showed a beaming passenger, comfortably pil lowed and covered with furry blanket, addressing himself to martini, steak and a copy of Realties. In April, Gehnrich Associates kicked off a campaign for RCA Global Communications, aiming to get across the point that a businessman can often save himself an over seas trip by sending a telex message instead. Headline on the RCA ads: "Why send the whole man overseas just to give someone a piece of his mind?"

The illustration was almost a duplicate of the Northeast ad; it showed a slippered, pillowed, fur-wrapped executive in a plane seat about to attack his meal. A well-received Hertz ad, showing a weary traveler arriving in a strange city, was copied closely for an RCA announcement of "an international terminal for people who hate to travel."

Both ads featured the same model: Actor Lou Jacobi.

The RCA ads were created by Gehnrich President Marvin Weinberg, who majored at City College of New York in comparative literature. Carl Ally, whose Northeast and Hertz ads were borrowed, admits that he has done some copying himself. After Young & Rubicam initiated Eastern Air Lines' "We want everyone to fly," Ally produced a new twist for Northeast: "We want everyone to fly--with us."

William Esty Co. created Noxzema shave cream's famous TV ad, in which Gunilla Knutson whispers "Take it off, take it all off." Soon after that caught on, Young & Rubicam hired an actress with a throaty voice, just like Gunilla's, to implore, "Put it on, put it all on" --an appeal for customers to buy Plymouths and load them with all manner of optional equipment. Eagle Shirtmakers' color-naming contest of five years ago--in which the winning entries included Foreseeable Fuchsia, God's Little Ochre and Hot Chestnut--was revived this spring by Young & Rubicam for Ford's Maverick. The car colors range from Freudian Gilt and Original Cinnamon to Anti-Establishmint.

Nobody seems to be mad about the copycatting. The writer of the Noxzema ad, John Blumenthal of William Esty, says: "Just think, every time people hear that girl saying 'Put it all on,' they will remember the Noxzema girl saying Take it all off.' "

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