Estimating The Audience Size (the Mirror Giveaway)
At a time when there were no TV ratings -- the A.C. Nielsen Company would not begin measuring TV ratings until 1950 -- Anacin aspirin decided to take a chance and sponsor the show. But this decision worried the advertising executives at Anacin, who thought that they might be wasting money by sponsoring a show with a sparse audience.
A simple, non-scientific scheme to gauge the size of the audience was hatched. During one commercial spot, Anacin offered a free pocket mirror to the first 200 viewers who wrote in requesting one. As a precaution, they purchased a total of 400 mirrors in case the audience was twice as large as they expected. Although the free mirror was offered only during that one spot, Anacin received nearly 9000 requests for mirrors.
Read more about this topic: Mary Kay And Johnny
Famous quotes containing the words estimating, audience, size and/or mirror:
“I am sure that in estimating every man’s value either in private or public life, a pure integrity is the quality we take first into calculation, and that learning and talents are only the second.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“The audience is the most revered member of the theater. Without an audience there is no theater. Every technique learned by the actor, every curtain, every flat on the stage, every careful analysis by the director, every coordinated scene, is for the enjoyment of the audience. They are our guests, our evaluators, and the last spoke in the wheel which can then begin to roll. They make the performance meaningful.”
—Viola Spolin (b. 1911)
“To believe her limited in range because she was harmonious in method is as sensible as to imagine that when the Atlantic Ocean is as smooth as a mill-pond it shrinks to the size of a mill-pond.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“When Walser first put on his make-up, he looked in the mirror and did not recognise himself ... he experienced the freedom that lies behind the mask, within dissimulation.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)