Game Plan
ISRAEL
DicrEsa-
Specially compiled by The Jerusalem Post
Los Angeles businessman Brian Hersch finds success with
rodents, deodorants and other things taboo.
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSISTANT EDITOR
burst (other memorable cate-
gories include: animal sounds
(players are directed: "perform
them"); general cow informa-
tion; things you pick; and baby
words for biological functions)
is the third best-selling adult
game ever, behind Trivial Pur-
suit and Pictionary.
The 43-year-old Mr. Hersch,
whose games are now sold in 21
countries, credits his success to
a combination of business acu-
men and creativity.
A native of Los Angeles, he
started out in real estate de-
velopment. Then he read an
article about Trivial Pursuit,
a game that was about to hit
Brian Hersch: Com form in moo juice. the market and was expected to
be especially lucrative.
Those in the business would
t isn't every businessman
eventually credit Trivial Pur-
who spends his afternoons
suit's success to a public craze
coming up with synonyms for
for nostalgia. Mr. Hersch, in-
the word vomit.
trigued by the notion of a game
But as entrepreneur Brian
that would bring in millions, de-
Hersch will testify, vomit (or
cided to find out for himself.
wretch, heave, upchuck, toss-
He commissioned a market
your-cookies, purge, throw up,
research study, then came away
lose-your-lunch, puke, barf,
convinced that the key to suc-
praying to the porcelain god), as
cess wasn't trivia but a reces-
well as brands and types of de-
sion.
odorants, things that stink, var-
"Every really good game
ious rodents and different kinds
(such as Monopoly in the De-
of execution are a lot more than
pression, Scrabble in the 1950s)
just unusual business-day top-
came during tough economic
ics.
times, because these always im-
They all mean big bucks.
pact entertainment dollars," he
Brian Hersch, of the Los An-
explains.
geles-based Hersch and Com-
Like Trivial Pursuit, Mr. Her-
pany, is the mind behind such
sch's first game, in which play-
popular games as Outburst (in
ers had to sort out real from
which players are challenged to
imaginary quotes, came out in
identify 10 words in categories
the recession of the mid-1980s.
including "Alternate expressions
Out of Context made its debut
for vomit," and "Methods of ex-
at the New York Toy Fair. With
ecution"), Taboo, SongBurst and
initial orders for 100,000, the
now the hot new Oodles, where
game saw success Mr. Hersch
the object is identifying words,
labels "phenomenal."
all of which begin with the same
Today, Brian Hersch oversees
letter, based on (sometimes ob-
his games from A to Z. He does
scure) clues.
all the writing for the categories,
The letter is F.
much of which he does off the
"Corn form floating in moo
top of his head. (Every now and
juice," Mr. Hersch says with rel-
ish. "Now think about it: moo
juice."
Give up?
An electronic buzzer says
ZAP.
It's "flake."
Or how about "How Bambi
rs
wirm
grovels."
The answer: "fawn."
Mr. Hersch is really enjoying
himself "Fawn," he says. "I love
that one."
No wonder. If the past is any
sign of things to come, Oodles is
likely to bring oodles of money
then, a more complicated ques-
to Hersch and Company.
tion requires a little research).
Since 1985, when Mr. Hersch
It's that kind of commitment
introduced his first game, his
that explains categories like "Al-
business has brought in $340
ternate expressions for vomit,"
million in retail sales. His Out-
Mr. Hersch says. "That comes
I
from the mental state of having
written too many of these."
Sometimes the idea behind a
game is pure inspiration, he
says. "I'll be driving along and
all of a sudden I'll think of it."
Other times, it takes a tremen-
dous amount of thinking and
imagining. The one concept he
always tries to keep in mind:
"What are our common denom-
inators and how can those be ex-
pressed in an entertaining way
for an hour?"
Although it takes him "any-
where from six to eight months
or even years" to write a game,
Mr. Hersch insists one of the
most challenging aspects of pro-
ducing an Outburst or Taboo is
explaining the rules.
"Writing the rules is a terri-
bly, terribly difficult thing to do,"
he says.
When a game is complete, it's
given to a test group selected
from a pool of 180 men and
women, all of whom are paid.
Their first job is simply to read
and understand the directions
(later comes the really difficult
work: playing the game). Mr.
Hersch recalls that the rules for
one game required six rewrites
and were presented to seven dif-
ferent test groups before it was
approved.
Mr. Hersch, who has de-
signed 19 games, says he hopes
to come out with a television
game show — possibly with
Dick Clark, with whom he al-
ready has produced several pi-
lots — in the near future.
Meanwhile, he'll be content with
the glowing admiration TV stars
give to his board games.
In one recent magazine arti-
cle, actress Connie Sellecca and
her husband, "Entertainment
Tonight" host John Tesh, said
they love to play Mr. Hersch's
Taboo, a game which challenges
a player, without saying certain
identifying clues, to get team
Sprint Beats Bezek For Polish Phones
The U.S. telecommunications
giant Sprint has beaten out Is-
rael's Bezek group in the com-
petition for a major phone
project in Poland.
Bezek officials admitted last
week they were surprised by
a letter informing them that
they were out of the running.
Bezek chairman Moshe
Haba and director-general
Yitzhak Kaul had both gone
to Poland to talk to telecom-
munications officials. Other
Bezek staffers were there re-
cently to try to clinch the deal.
"It was a major contract,
but we are working on a much
bigger deal we hope to con-
clude with Russia," company
spokesman Zechariya Mizrot-
sky said.
Bezek hopes that Israeli
Communications Minister
Shulamit Aloni, who is work-
ing on a new general license
for the company, will not pro-
hibit it from establishing
phone systems abroad.
It has already signed po-
tentially profitable contracts
in Eastern Europe.
FDA Approves Teva Drug
Teva Pharmaceutical Indus-
tries in Israel has received ap-
proval from the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration (FDA)
to market its generic blood
pressure medicine Diltiazem.
Teva said the market for
the brand name version of the
drug — Cardizem SR, which
is produced by Marion Merrell
Dow — is estimated to be
worth more than $140 million
in sales.
Teva said its product is the
first generic version of the
brand-name drug approved by
the FDA.
Teva will now market Dil-
tiazem extended release 60
milligram, 90 mg. and 120 mg.
capsules to customers in the
United States.
The product is the final re-
sult of a joint development pro-
ject of Teva, its U.S.
subsidiary, Lemmon, and
France's Prographarm Labo-
ratories, which will produce
the capsules.
Israel Economy Continues Growth
The economy continued ex-
panding rapidly last month at
a pace set in October, when
growth surpassed the first
quarter's record levels, Israeli
State Revenues Director
Yoram Gabbai announced.
Value Added Tax collection
figures have increased since
taking off in October, after a 4
percent drop during the April
to July period, according to
Gabbai.
In August, the trend was re-
versed and in October VAT re-
ceipts began rising rapidly,
surpassing the first quarter's
performance. T a St month, the
trend continued.
VAT receipts are considered
a good indicator of economic
activity.
Overall tax revenues in-
creased 1 percent in Novem-
ber compared to last year.
Excluding legislative changes
made since the beginning of
the year, tax revenues grew 3
percent.
From the beginning of the
year, tax revenues were up 5
percent.
Excluding
legislative
changes, revenues grew 6 per-
cent as a result of the expan-
sion of economic activity and
imports.
Revenues from income tax-
es were up 9 percent last
month, compared to Novem-
ber 1992. Since the beginning
of 1993, collections are up 10 I
percent.
Oberson Signs With Macy's
Gideon Oberson Fashion In-
dustries has signed its first
distribution agreement with
Macy's department store.
Oberson said the deal is an
experimental agreement in-
volving the sale of swim wear
valued at $50,000. The two
companies negotiated the
11.Y
TV S1111WS
— $1 EQUALS 2.9480 NIS (shekels) - Close Price 11/25/93 —
filsE ,M,120 TI •,
agreement over a six-month
period.
Oberson was founded in
1976. Its clients include the
London-based Harrods and
Harvey Nichols, and top stores
in France, the United States
and Spain.
Burger King Plans To Open
members to call out a particu-
lar word. (Imagine trying to get
someone to say "Jewish" if you
couldn't mention religion, syn-
agogue, Rosh Hashanah or
gefilte fish.) ❑
Burger King's representative
in Israel, Rik-Kamor, has rent-
ed space in the Kiryon, a shop-
ping mall in Kiryat Bialik.
This is the first contract Burg-
er King has signed in Israel.
Burger King plans to sign
additional rental agreements
in Israel in the near future.