Opercrtion Home lmprovement Goes lnto High Geor Wifh itoy os Notionol tBetter Your Living' Month

The month of May 1957-as National "Better Your Living" Month-will provide a focal point for the continuing Operation Home Improvement campaign. Former Executive Director John R. Doscher, in announcing plans for the May event, commented that "the idea is to get everyone to pull behind one gigantic nationwide saturation campaign for maximum impact on American homeowners. We've needed this for many years, and we can do it now based upon the proved success of OHI in many, many hundreds of communities in 1956."

These will be the elements in the May promotion:

1. Proclamation of the month by federal, state and local government officials.

2. Extensive attention from national consumer magazines through special issues or special sections.

3. Heavy newspaper participation; several organizations within the newspaper industry are working now toward an unprecedented barrage of special sections.

4. Specially keyed advertising copy by OHI sponsors, as well as special promotion materials for dealers.

5. A supplementary kit of advertising and display materials from OHI headquarters for the dealers, contractors and lenders who purchase the basic 1957 OHI kit.

More than 8O manufacturers and other organizations have become sponsors of the 1957 OHI campaign. "That's a good head start," Doscher commented, "but there's still plenty of

Doscher Plons Syndicored Ad Progrom For Building Supply Deolers

John R. Doscher announced February 25 his resignation as executive director of Operation Home Improvement. The action was requested by the board of directors as an economy move. Doscher made it clear that this action should have little effect on the successful conclusion of the Operation Home Improvement campaign as most of the creative promotion work has already been completed on schedule. A number of governors have already issued state proclamations in cooperation with the program.

The action came as a result of the Board of Directors' decision to cut OHI's ten-member staff in half as an economy move, to allow the program to continue operation in the face of a severe shortage of financial support from industry. Doscher explained that the Board decision made good sense and he complimented the Board members for their fund-rai5ing efforts which have produced $125,000 of OHI's $175,000 fiscal year budget. "It is too bad that more companies that are profiting from the overall OHI effort apparently do not see the need to invest just a few thousand dollars to allow OHI's high-level promotional efforts to continue," Doscher said. He pointed out that the building materials producers were back of OHI 99/o, but that the financial support from the paint industry, for example, was practically nothing.

Don Moore, formerly OHI's assistant director, will take over manag'ement of the stripped-down task force as managing director. Doscher feels that under Moore's leader- room on the list for others, especially from the parts of the industry that are not yet well represented." ship, the OHI campaign will continue to gain momentum right on through the OHl-sponsored May "Better Your Living" Month promotion. OHI has already produced the 52-piece OHI Advertising & Display Kit and many thousands are already in the hands of dealers everywhere. fn announcing the opening of his office, Doscher said, "For four years, first for ACTION, then OHI, I've crusaded for the building industry. Now it's time for me to go into business for myself as a sales development consultant to the building industry." In addition to working on major accounts, he plans to initiate soon a specially designed, syndicated advertising service for building supply dealers, which will provide a bi-weekly series of specially prepared newspaper ads in mat form, radio copy, and a monthly newsletter for an estimated $50 per year.

Major new sponsors include Armstrong Cork Co., Celotex Corporation, Flintkote Co., Formica Corporation, Georgia-Pacific Plywood Co., Kaiser Gypsum Co., LIFETime, Inc., Marsh Wall Products, Masonite Corporation, National Association of Home Builders, National Lumber Manufacturers Association, National Gypsum Co., National Retail Lumber Dealers Association, Roddis Plywood Corporation, United States Plywood Co., U.S. Savings and Loan League, Weyerhaeuser Sales Co., Wood Conversion Co.

Featured in the OHI 1957 kit is "Oscar Ohi," a four-foottall character who, as 1957's super-salesman for all types of home improvements, is expected to become as familiar throughout the country as the OHI eagle. Purchasing the OHI kit gives dealers, contractors, lenders, etc., rights to use of Oscar in all of their 1957 advertising and promotion materials. The kit actually contains a life-size pattern; all you have to do is paste it on a sheet of plywood or hardboard, cut it out, and Oscar is ready to go to work for you, handing out appropriate home improvement literature to all of your customers.

Purchasers of the kit will also automatically receive a supplementary kit of materials designed to make it easy for them to tie in with the gigantic promotion of May as "Better-Your-Living Month."

"For the first time in two years, it is now possible for me to plan beyond the end of the Operation Home fmprovement campaign," Doscher said as he announced plans to open his own sales promotion agency in New York. "Obviously, the big job is for individual companies in the industry to compete more effectively with other industries for a bigger share of the consumer dollar," Doscher said.

"Remodeling and time selling will be the basic themes of the advertising," Doscher said, "and this professional service will be sold on an exclusive one-dealer-per-town basis. In our close association with building supply dealers these past few years, I've noted the great need for better local advertising, and on a syndicated basis it need not cost any dealer more than $50 a year," he said. Doscher's office is located at 10 Rockefeller Plaza. N.Y.