ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW **********************
with
GEORGE PORIS
at
Haworth, New Jersey
April 6, 1990
By Scott Ellsworth
Abstracted by Julie Weiss
For the Cover Girl Oral History Project Interview :fI 16
Archives Center National Museum of American History Smithsonian Institution
TAPE ABSTRACT AND INDEX ***********************
For more information contact the Archives Center at [email protected] or 202-633-3270 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
George Poris is a former creative director at SSC&B. He served in World War II, attended Columbia University, and began to work in the advertising business in 1951, working for Benton and Bowles. In 1958, he joined SSC&B, and was central in creating and advertising Cover Girl make-up. From 1968 to 1971, he worked for Revlon, then returned to SSC&B where he worked until his retirement in 1980.
SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE
In this interview, George Poris expounds on the genesis of Cover Girl make-up, elaborating on the three elements of its creation: its unique claim on being a medicated make-up, its availability in grocery stores, and its image as a clean, wholesome product. Poris also discusses many of the principals at Noxell and SSC&B, the advertising agency which handled Cover Girl advertising.
For more information contact the Archives Center at [email protected] or 202-633-3270 PORIS INTERVIEW - PAGE 2
Abstract of Interview with George Poris, April 6, 1990 Haworth, New Jersey Interviewer: Scott Ellsworth
Tape 1, Side 1
0:20 George Poris was the creative director for Noxell advertising.
2:20 BIOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND
George Poris entered the advertising world in 1941, after he finished high school. He worked at the forerunner of SSC&B, and there met Mary Ayres. After serving in World War II and attending Columbia University, he joined Benton and Bowles in 1951. In 1957, he joined SSC&B.
5:30 Dick Wylie was responsible for bringing Poris to SSC&B as a copy group head on the Pall Mall cigarette account.
6:00 SSC&B was a $35 million a year business; half of that business was Pall Mall cigarettes. Noxzema's business was about one million dollars a year.
6:50 Poris began to work on Noxzema skin cream, working with Ayres and Ray Sullivan.
7:40 Dr. George Avery Bunting, the founder of Noxzema, was in his 90s when Poris began working on the advertising. Ray Sullivan, who was chairman of the board of SSC&B, was asked to become chairman of the board of Noxzema.
9:20 Noxzema had just started advertising on network television on the Perry Como Show.
9:50 Bill Grathwohl was the recently-hired director of advertising at Noxzema.
10:50 For about a year and a half, Sullivan was on the board of both SSC&B and Noxzema.
11:20 SELLING NOXZEMA AS A BEAUTY PRODUCT
Mary Ayres had become an account executive at SSC&B. She had been responsible for getting Noxzema into the beauty business. Noxzema had been used as a skin remedy, but people did not use very much of it.
For more information contact the Archives Center at [email protected] or 202-633-3270 PORIS INTERVIEW - PAGE 3
13:10 Ayres discovered that Noxzema skin cream was water soluble, and suggested selling it as a beauty treatment in the late 1930s. She pitched Noxzema as a cleanser, a moisturizer, and a softener.
16:30 When Poris began to work on Noxzema, the campaign was "Cleans like soap , softens like cream, moistens like a night treatment." The ads maintained that Noxzema was medicated, which made its unpleasant smell acceptable.
18:00 Bill Grathwohl was the first advertising manager at Noxzema. He was good to work for because he allowed the creatives to take risks and fail.
19:30 Bill Hunt was new products manager, and did not have anything directly to do with advertising. Norbert Witt was sales manager.
20:30 At SSC&B, Sullivan was the head of the account, and Mary Ayres ran the business day-to-day. She was very demanding and good at her job. Poris was the creative.
21:30 THE INCEPTION OF COVER GIRL
Ayres wanted Noxzema to diversify from making only skin cream and shaving cream. The Esty agency did the Noxzema shaving cream advertising.
23:10 The Noxzema business was growing as Noxzema was pitched as a beauty treatment.
24:00 Cover Girl was going to be unique because it was a medicated make-up that smelled like Noxzema. It was going to be made to be sold in grocery stores, rather than in drug stores where Revlon, the cosmetics leader, was sold. There were only three shades of Cover Girl, because Ayres found that most women bought only three shades of Revlon.
27:00 Cover Girl was only sold in two forms: in a compact and a liquid.
27:30 With a small line of products, Cover Girl could be sold in the chain supermarkets in the health and beauty section.
28:50 Medication was a trait unique to Cover Girl make-up.
30:00 Noxzema skin cream had always marketed to teens as a blemish cream.
For more information contact the Archives Center at [email protected] or 202-633-3270 paRIS INTERVIEW - PAGE 4
Tape 1, Side 2
0:10 MEDICATED MAKE-UP
Cover Girl contained Noxzema medication, and added hexachlorophine.
1:30 Dr. Samuel Peck was the dermatologist who was a consultant for Noxzema.
2:10 With hexachlorophine, Cover Girl could claim that the make-up killed germs. Hexachlorophine was eventually banned because of negative side effects.
6:20 Noxzema could continue to claim that it was medicated because the skin cream never contained hexachlorophine.
8:10 NAMING COVER GIRL
10:00 Positioning was a key problem in developing Cover Girl make-up. They considered marketing exclusively for the teen market as a blemish coverup, but tested the make-up for adult consumers as well.
12:30 Radio ads were aimed at teens, but the bulk of the budget on television was for adults.
14:30 Carol Oelbaum, a copywriter at Benton and Bowles, came up with the name "Cover Girl."
17 :20 Bill Grathwohl decided Cover Girl was the best name for the make-up.
19:40 The name Cover Girl was registered to another company, so Noxzema set up a fake corporation and paid a small fee for the rights to the name.
21:30 Cover Girl sought American Medical Association approval for the product's anti-bacterial claims.
24:00 The basic position for Cover Girl was to sell beauty first because women used make-up primarily to look better.
25:40 The first ad said, "At last, a cover girl complexion, so natural, you won't believe it's make-up." The subheadline made claims about the medicated quality of the make-up.
For more information contact the Archives Center at [email protected] or 202-633-3270 PORIS INTERVIEW - PAGE 5
27:50 Poris worked on Cover Girl from its inception until 1968, when he left SSC&B to be Vice President and Director of Advertising at Revlon. In 1971, he returned to SSC&B as creative director, where he worked on Noxell until he retired in 1980.
29:40 A friend of Poris, who worked at Revlon, warned that Cover Girl could never succeed because it smelled bad.
Tape 2, Side 1
0:40 Most of the cosmetics writers in New York got their start working for Poris on Cover Girl.
1:30 Mary Ayres was the most important account person on Cover Girl.
2:30 Ayer brought in many women to work on Cover Girl.
4:10 Arthur Weithas was the first art director.
6:00 Ron Albright and Nick Pelligrino produced the television advertisements.
6:40 The first television ads were sixty seconds, a comparatively long time. i:50 THE CREATIVE ASPECT OF COVER GIRL
Grathwohl insisted that the ads use real covers from real magazines. It was difficult to find a magazine that would cooperate.
10:00 Finally Cosmopolitan agreed to let its cover be used, and Mademoiselle was used for the test market.
10:30 The creative visual was to take the magazine cover and make the cover girl come to life.
12:10 For the first year, Cover Girl was able to use many different magazines, but then the magazines refused to be used.
12:50 Grathwohl came up with the idea of going to Europe for the magazine covers and the models.
15:00 After two years of shooting in Europe, Cover Girl was established, and American magazines were willing to cooperate.
For more information contact the Archives Center at [email protected] or 202-633-3270 PORIS INTERVIEW - PAGE 6
15:30 At some point, they began to create their own magazine cover for their ads. Poris considered creating a magazine called Cover Girl.
16:50 Many people today probably do not know that Cover Girl make-up is medicated.
17:30 Cover Girl failed in making lipstick because it did not have enough colors .
18:00 Cover Girl was introduced in two test markets. It was immediately successful, earning in one month what Noxell had thought would be a year's earnings.
20:00 Cover Girl was not originally known as a clean, fresh make-up. The "look" was controlled by the magazine cover used in the ad.
23:00 Mary Ayres was the only woman working on Cover Girl. The make-up was created and sold by men.
23:40 The clean look began as a carry-over from the Noxzema basis of the product.
24:30 In 1965 or 1966, Poris created the "clean make-up" campaign that established the Cover Girl look.
26:00 The clean look sold well in the 1960s, when wearing make-up was out of style.
27:10 Revlon was the first make-up company to hire a model to work for them. In 1968, Revlon had just signed Lauren Hutton.
29:50 Cover Girl hired Cybill Shepherd to work exclusively on its campaigns. Then Cover Girl hired Jennifer O'Neill.
Tape 2, Side 2
4:20 The ads directed at young teens focused on covering blemishes. An early Cover Girl commercial had Joan Collins singing.
8:00 Cover Girl sold best to young people. Late in Poris's tenure, the product was losing consumers over thirty years old. Cover Girl responded by creating a moisturizer for older women.
10:00 CHERYL TIEGS
Cheryl Tiegs had the perfect look for Cover Girl, and was very professional to work with. The Scandanavian look was what Americans were looking for at the time.
For more information contact the Archives Center at [email protected] or 202-633-3270 paRIS INTERVIEW - PAGE 7
11:20 When Cover Girl signed Tiegs, she could not speak well, so her voice was dubbed in the commercials.
13:10 After she signed with ABC television, she began to speak in the ads.
13:40 While Poris was consulting for Cover Girl, Kim Alexis was hired.
14:20 Fran Harrison was originally Noxell's research director. Grathwohl was director of advertising. Bates Hall was advertising director for skin cream.
17:10 Harrison did not like Christie Brinkley's jaw. Tiegs had very thin lips.
18:40 Jennifer O'Neill was the first Cover Girl.
19:20 Mary Ayres was the account executive for Cover Girl. She was succeeded by several others.
20:30 Stone Roberts was an account executive on skin cream in 1971 when Poris returned to Cover Girl.
21:10 Joan Rothberg was also very important to Cover Girl advertising.
22:10 Stone Roberts moved up to Cover Girl.
22:20 RAY SULLIVAN'S CAREER WITH NOXELL
Ray Sullivan died in 1969 or 1970.
22:50 Sullivan graduated from Yale, and worked for Bunting helping sell Noxzema. He distributed Noxzema door to door to drug stores. Bunting gave Sullivan a free hand to market, advertise and sell Noxzema.
26:40 PROCTER & GAMBLE'S BUY-OUT OF NOXELL
Procter & Gamble's buy-out of Noxell has been heartbreaking to the many people who have worked in the small, family-owned corporation.
29:00 Mary Ayres was from the Midwest; she moved to New York and became a secretary. Poris met her in 1941. She earned a business degree, and was very ambitious. She was the first woman vice-president of a major advertising agency.
For more information contact the Archives Center at [email protected] or 202-633-3270 PORIS INTERVIEW - PAGE 8
Tape 3, Side 1
0:10 Ayres worked her way up from secretary to board member. She was very demanding.
1:40 In the early 1960s, market analysts saw that advertising was going to become an international business. British advertising was very primitive at the time. Several European advertisers came to New York to be trained at an American agency.
5:20 Twice a year, foreign advertisers came to SSG&B for seminars. Eventually SSG&B bought part of an international agency.
For more information contact the Archives Center at [email protected] or 202-633-3270 paRIS INTERVIEW - PAGE 9
GEORGE paRIS
INDEX OF ABSTRACT # 16
Albright, Ron 16: 2: 1, 6:00 Alexis, Kim 16: 2: 2, 13:40 American Medical Association 16: 1: 2, 21:30 "At last, a cover girl complexion ... " 16: 1: 2, 25:40 Ayres, Mary 16: 1: 1, 2:20, 11:20, 13:10, 20:30, 21:30, 24:00; 16: 2: 1, 1:30, 2:30, 23:00; 16: 2: 2, 19:20, 29:00; 16: 3: 1, 0:10
Benton and Bowles 16: 1: 1, 2:20; 16: 1: 2, 14:30 Brinkley, Christie 16: 2: 2, 17:10 Bunting, Dr. George A. 16: 1: 1, 7:40; 16: 2: 2, 22:50
Cleans like soap ... " 16: 1: 1, 16:30 Collins, Joan 16: 2: 2, 4:20 Cosmopolitan 16: 2: 1, 10:00 Cover Girl, advertising 16: 1: 2, 12:30, 24:00, 25:40; 16: 2: 1, 0:40, 6:40, 7:50, 10:00, 10:30, 12:10, 12:50, 15:00, 15:30; 16: 2: 2, 4:20, 8:00, 11:20, 13:10, 21:10 Cover Girl, development 16: 1: 1, 24:00 Cover Girl, image 16: 2: 1, 20:00, 23:40, 24:30, 26:00 Cover Girl, lipstick 16: 2: 1, 17:30 Cover Girl, make-up 16: 1: 1, 24:00, 27:00; 16: 1: 2, 0:10 Cover Girl, marketing 16: 1: 1, 24:00, 27:30; 16: 2: 1, 18:00 Cover Girl, medicated 16: 1: 1, 24:00, 28:50; 16: 1: 2, 2:10, 6:20, 21:30; 16: 2: 1, 16:50 Cover Girl, name 16: 1: 2, 8:10, 14:30, 17:20, 19:40
Esty 16: 1: 1, 21:30
Grathwohl, Bill 16: 1: 1, 9:50, 18:00; 16: 1: 2, 17:20; 16: 2: 1, 7:50, 12:50; 16: 2: 2, 14:20
Hall, Bates 16: 2: 2, 14:20 Harrison, Fran 16: 2: 2, 14:20, 17:10 Hexach1orophine 16: 1: 2, 0:10, 2:10 Hunt, Bill 16: 1: 1, 19:30 Hutton, Lauren 16: 2: 1, 27:10
Mademoiselle 16: 2: 1, 10:00
Noxe11 16: 1: 1, 0:20; 16: 2: 1, 18:00; 16: 2: 2, 14:20, 26:40 Noxzema Chemical Company 16: 1: 1, 6:00, 7:40, 9:20, 9:50, 10:50, 18:00, 21:30; 16: 1: 2, 1:30, 19:40 Noxzema shaving cream 16: 1: 1, 21:30 Noxzema skin cream 16: 1: 1, 11:20, 13:10, 16:30, 23:10, 30:00; 16: 2: 2, 22:50
For more information contact the Archives Center at [email protected] or 202-633-3270 PORIS INTERVIEW - PAGE 10
Oe1baum, Carolyn 16: 1: 2, 14: 30 O'Neill, Jennifer 16: 2: 1, 29:50; 16: 2: 2, 18:40
Pall Mall 16: 1: 1, 5:30 Peck, Dr. Samuel 16: 1: 2, 1:30 Pe11igrino, Nick 16: 2: 1, 6:00 Perry Como Show 16: 1: 1, 9:20 Poris, George 16: 1: 1, 0:20, 2:20, 5:30, 6:50, 7:40, 16:30; 16: 1: 2, 27:50; 16: 2: 1, 0:40; 16: 2: 2, 8:00, 20:30, 29:00 Procter & Gamble 16: 2: 2, 26:40
Rev10n 16: 1: 1, 24:00; 16: 1: 2, 27:50, 29:40; 16: 2: 1, 27:10 Roberts, Stone 16: 2: 2, 20:30, 21:10 Rothberg, Joan 16: 2: 2, 21:10
SSC&B 16: 1: 1, 2:20, 5:30, 6:00, 7:40, 10:50, 11:20, 20:30; 16: 1: 2, 27:50; 16: 3: 1, 5:20 Shepherd, Cybi11 16: 2: 1, 29:50 Sullivan, Ray 16: 1: 1, 7:40, 10:50, 20:30; 16: 2: 2, 22:20, 22:50
Teenagers 16: 1: 2, 10:00, 12:30; 16: 2: 1, 4:20, 8:00 Tiegs, Cheryl 16: 2: 2, 10:00, 11:20, 13:10
Wei thas, Arthur 16: 2: 1, 4:10 Witt, Norbert 16: 1: 1, 19:30 Wylie, Dick 16: 1: 1, 5:30
For more information contact the Archives Center at [email protected] or 202-633-3270 NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY
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I, __----lo.G,...::::;...._(;:_D~fl---G __ E______:y_o_-_{L_\_S___ , he r eby give my
permission to the Archives Center, National Museum of American
History, Smithsonian Institution, to make this recording of oral
history available for use by historians, scholars, and others
authorized by the Archives Center under the general archival
procedures employed by the Archives Center.
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For more information contact the Archives Center at [email protected] or 202-633-3270 Smithsonian Institution - Washington. D.C. 20560 L(~ J\.ow- (\0 ~QJ\J-..,,~ (. ' W~~'~ k~~ r~rw-~ ~bb ~b-.-- ~kot'b SSC-{-B 71fl Iq)/ - , ~ ~So~ r".Q~~ c~t3 $--S Polt \\\~ - Nbt S s 6i--& No;(-t{fVlo- For more information contact the Archives Center at [email protected] or 202-633-3270 NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND CULTURE March 21, 1990 Center for Advertising History t Room C340 3"evrge POl.1.s - ·' Dear Mr. Poris: I write in regard to your work for Cover Girl. For the past five years, the Center for Advertising History has been engaged in efforts to help study and preserve the history of American advertising, particu larly of the period since World War II. To that end, we have conducted in-depth studies of a handful of nationally significant advertising campaigns, including Pepsi, Marlboro, Alka-Seltzer, Federal Express, and Campbell's Soup. A few months ago, the Center began a study of Cover Girl and its advertising. The general aim of this project--which is being conducted with the active support of Noxell--is to document the origins and development of Cover Girl advertising, and to preserve that record here at the Smithsonian. As part of this project, I have interviewed nearly twenty individuals associated with the history of Cover Girl. I would very much like to interview you. With your permission, I would like to come to New Jersey or New York and interview you sometime during the next few weeks. (Nick Pelligrino, whom I interviewed yesterday, offered his office in New York for such an interview--but I would be happy to come anywhere). If this is agreeable to you, would you mind dropping me a line or phoning me here at the Smithsonian? My number here is . I do not have a phone number for you. If you have any questions about the project, please feel free to contact me, Peter Troup at Noxell , or F. Stone Roberts at Lintas ). I've enclosed a few brochures. Thanks so much for your time--and I hope that we will have a chance to talk in the near future. Yours truly, ~lS~.. Historian Encls. For more information contactSmithso thenian Archives Institution Center . Washington at [email protected], D.C. 20560 or 202-633-3270 For more information contact the Archives Center at [email protected] or 202-633-3270 NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND CULTURE COVER GIRL ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS March 19. 1990 Completed Interviews (14) Interviews to be Scheduled (6) John Bergin Christie Brinkley G. Lloyd Bunting J Bill Hunt George L. Bunting, Jr. Ruth Lareau Sheri Colonel Jennifer O'Neill Lynne Giordano V George Poris Bates Hall Cheryl Tiegs Fran Harrison p Q kc...,)1(t,\ ~ttr r ~ - w~m;es ) Dick Huebner ). --tt~\.... Ot L..- i'.:>~ A Malcolm MacDougal Karen McIver Helen Nash F. Stone Roberts Peter Troup Norbert Witt Interviews Scheduled (2) _ Haly Ayres Nick Pelligrino . ~ For more information contactSmithsonian the ArchivesInstitution Center . Washington, at [email protected] D.C. 20560 or 202-633-3270 ..... ---- r (J '-\ ( ~ ./--- £\Jt::yr 0 tlclJ?\ 1V1.\ZJt( ~ "l ~ Gf)Jj (~S;~ ",-J ,~ 1'\:J1t/t (XlY\J 1(9,)1 - ~ NVv t - 0uvL(-J vV\.A-" lv'tAJU-{' rQS~ - 5)L-t-\S --12> ( C{0~ For more information contact the Archives Center at [email protected] or 202-633-3270 .- ~)riVL OtrtL'(>A-U h ftG\ck -rftUShMAJ 'v UA h~Ll £ 1Y1 j \vte ;fr~ CLv( ~ ~ 0 b ~ ~/[((b L'il ~ . OA (0\/11 1L /0 ~ ~(c-- f ~ (( ( jiA Au - 'ZAJ. j1vVJ~( ~ For more information contact the Archives Center at [email protected] or 202-633-3270 ~~;:>".------ ~---.------.--.. -.-.- --. \ c9sDL Gj~~ Oc:J\L1Ytv{uA For more information contact the Archives Center at [email protected] or 202-633-3270 jy6u / &~'-'S ~~G-f'v~\ \of JJ/'z ?ictv /VV'T - !~3l0 0eL ifoX\7fl7C\ ~ For more information contact the Archives Center at [email protected] or 202-633-3270 NATIONAL MUSEUM of AMERICAN HISTORY SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND CULTURE Center for Advertising History Room C340 (202) 357-1648 April 9, 1992 Mr. George Poris Advisory Board HERBERT M. BAUM Campbell North America Camden, N .J. Dear Mr. Poris: HOWARD H. BELL American Advertising Federation I hope you recently received a colorful Washington,D.C. brochure of the Cover Girl collection here at the Smithsonian. EARLE PALMER BROWN Earle Palmer Brown Companies Bethesda, Maryland We appreciate not only your oral history interview but the donation of your papers. I'll CAROLYN CARTER never forget picking them up from your basement! Grey Advertising, New York S. WATSON DUNN The papers are an important part of the Chevy Chase, Maryland Cover Girl collection and are described in the formerly of the University of Missouri enclosed finding aid. AMIL GARGANO As the Noxell (and Procter & Gamble) people Amil Gargano & Partners, New York examined all parts of the collection they were ROY GRACE concerned about proprietary information Grace and Rothschild, New York contained in some of your files. In order to avoid prolonged argument over this matter and to DEWITT F. HELM, JR. assure that your papers are preserved here in Association of National Advertisers, Inc. New York the Smithsonian Institution we agreed to short-term restrictions on access to your CAROLINE R. JONES files. I've enclosed a copy of this agreement. Caroline Jones Advertising New York I would be happy to talk with you about your papers if you have any questions. Please JOSEPH LANDY DDB Needham, McLean, Virginia don't hesitate to call me . HILARY LIPSITZ Sincerely, Sunday Productions, New York / /J l. ROSS LOVE Procter & Gamble Cincinnati, Ohio J/;;A ;Ij \ ~a~~Flaherty NORMAN MUSE Executive Director formerly of Leo Burnett Co., Inc. Chicago Enclosures WILLIAM O'BARR Duke University, Department of Cultural Anthropology, Durham, North Carolina JOHN O'TOOLE American Association of Advertising Agencies, New York JERRY SIANO Ayer, Inc., New York For more informationSmithsonian contact the Archives Institution Center • atWashington, [email protected] D.C. 20560 or 202-633-3270