45 Years Ago Today…Apollo 11 Heads For The Moon: Day 4

Here is the fourth of eight daily articles written for Eyes Of A Generation by Jodie Peeler on this historic event. Enjoy and share!
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As noted a few days ago, “Broadcasting” Magazine estimated the cost of the networks’ Apollo 11 coverage at $11 million ($71.3 million in 2014 dollars), with $6.5 million ($42.1 million in 2014 dollars) of that in direct production costs, including the multi-network pool. With everything the broadcasts would require – facilities, remotes, and logistical considerations only scratching the surface – and with the length of the coverage pre-empting regular programming, sponsorship took on even more importance than usual. Advertising Age reported that 11 sponsors spent $4 million ($25.9 million in 2014 dollars) on network coverage for Apollo 11.

Of the networks, NBC had perhaps the longest and most famous recurring sponsorship for continuing coverage. In December 1960, Gulf Oil chief Charles Whiteford struck an agreement with NBC’s Robert Kintner for sponsorship of “instant specials,” produced by Chet Hagan and anchored by Frank McGee, which would air in prime time and provide context for events that had happened only a few hours before. When the space program came along, Kintner wanted all-out coverage, and Hagan’s “instant special” unit became the go-to team. Gulf agreed to extend its sponsorship to space coverage.

Thanks to this partnership, NBC viewers remember continuing coverage of news events featuring Gulf commercials, and often a Gulf logo on the anchors’ desks. Anchors would often throw to commercials with a line such as “We’ll be back in a moment after this word from Gulf.” While other sponsors also bought time, Gulf’s association with NBC’s special events coverage through 1973 makes it perhaps the most-remembered sponsorship.

ABC often ran its coverage on a sustaining basis, though sponsors later came on as the 1960s progressed and the network’s news operations grew.
On Apollo 11, ABC’s most prominent sponsor was Tang, the instant orange drink closely associated with the space program, and Tang logos were prominently displayed on the anchor desks.

On the other hand, CBS News policy forbade placement of sponsor logos on desks, and forbade anchors from mentioning sponsors during throws to commercial (a typical throw was something like “CBS News color coverage of the flight of Apollo 11 will continue in a moment”). The only mentions by network personnel came at the start, resumption from local station time, and conclusion of coverage, when CBS announcer Harry Kramer read the “brought to you by…” billboards.

Since Apollo 7 CBS space coverage had been sponsored by Western Electric, the manufacturing and supply unit of the Bell System, which ran soft institutional ads at intervals throughout the coverage. This association continued through the lengthy coverage of Apollos 8, 9 and 10, and CBS naturally assumed Western Electric would do the same on Apollo 11. Two weeks prior to the mission, however, Western Electric informed CBS it would only sponsor one-third of the coverage. CBS thus had to scramble to find replacement sponsors. The International Paper Company (“where good ideas grow on trees”) came to the rescue, buying a third of the coverage as its first-ever network television buy. The remaining third was split between Kellogg’s and General Foods (which promoted its new Maxim freeze-dried coffee).

Even though the networks found sponsors for their Apollo 11 coverage, the effort still ran at a loss. CBS estimated that although it completely sold its ad time for Apollo 11, it still fell short of covering costs by $2.5 million ($16.2 million in 2014 dollars).

(Among other sources, this essay is indebted to the tremendous research into network space coverage conducted by Alfred R. Hogan for his 2005 master’s thesis, “Televising the Space Age.” Hogan’s detailed analysis of CBS spaceflight coverage includes details on sponsorship deals for space coverage, along with a listing of major sponsors for each flight CBS covered.)

Although commercials from Apollo 11 are difficult to find, it’s possible to look at commercials from other missions and give you a taste of what kinds of ads you’d have seen if you’d been watching in July 1969.

Here’s a soft-sell Gulf Oil spot seen on NBC during the Apollo 12 mission – “Bringin’ Home the Oil,” featuring the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. The song, based on “The Gallant Forty Twa,” salutes Gulf’s then-new oil terminal in Ireland’s Bantry Bay.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAFMgt4FeK0

On ABC, you might have seen ads like these, which played up Tang’s fabled association with the space program:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVZz2FdtzOQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t6zoY9zaVQ

A CBS sponsor billboard from the top of the Apollo 11 launch coverage, with Harry Kramer on the announce:
http://youtu.be/fu44hY_OnHo?t=2m55s

From CBS coverage, a Western Electric ad from the Apollo 13 splashdown telecast on April 17, 1970, typical of the institutional spots you’d see from these firms.
http://youtu.be/RU-N3oeETH4?t=7m49s

From the same coverage, Lloyd Bridges narrates an ad for International Paper.
http://youtu.be/vqNIA_mMS0M?t=2m33s

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