His TV Commercials Are Fun
When TV commercials build up a following to the point where fans ask to have them listed in the program schedule, so they won't miss them - somebody deserves a cheer. The beer-selling brothers, Bert and Harry Piel, are the cartoon pair that are so popular, and the man behind them is Edward R. Graham '49.
Graham, until recently in the TV section of Young & Rubicam, advertising agency, convinced the firm that the Piel commercial (then using the selling point that Piels is non-fattening) needed a boost. On the theory that beer sales are based on enjoyment rather than logic, Graham set about creating an engaging pair of salesmen, the supposed founders of the company. The Piel brothers emerged. Bert is fat, short, bumptious and brassy, and sports a natty vest. Harry is shy, conservative and apologetic. Extrovert Bert is a go-getter salesman and is married with a son, Bert Jr., at Dartmouth. Harry, properly Harold, is a chemist and a brewer and has bachelor quarters in Forest Hills, where his creator grew up and spent a year in high school. The Piel pair are drawn by artist Jack Sidebotham, and Bob and Ray of radio fame are the voices. Since the cartoon has appeared, Piels has had greater sales and TV audiences (beer drinkers or not) have enjoyed Graham's characters.
Graham was introduced to advertising at an early age - his father is vice-president of J. Walter Thompson. He came to Dartmouth from Staunton Military Academy with a writing career in mind. Dismayed at flunking his first freshman theme, he sent it to the Saturday Evening Post which published it for $50. His next theme (lady murdered in an elevator shaft) brought him an A from the professor with a note, "Sorry I can't give you $50."
At Dartmouth he continued to write for popular magazines and after graduation turned his versatile pen to advertising copy for McCann-Erickson. He joined Young & Rubicam in 1952. There a copywriter, Miss Nancy Keogh of New York City, caught his eye and he married her in May 1956. Since creating Bert and Harry, Graham has set up his own production outfit specializing in TV commercials. Bob and Ray (Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding) are his partners.
