|
|
Gary Pearce posted on July 03, 2009 13:55
Two “issue” ad campaigns caught my eye this week. They show where this kind of media strategy is going.
One ad was about U.S. Senator Kay Hagan and the others, state Senator Doug Berger.
When I first saw the ad about Hagan, I thought: She’s already running a campaign ad? It sounded just like one. It told us how hard she’s working to provide good health care for every American. How she wants our own doctors to make our health care decisions. And how we should call and thank her.
Then I saw who paid for the ad. It was some pharmaceutical industry group. Big Pharma, in other words.
Now, how did Hagan react when she saw the ad? Three possibilities:
“Isn’t that nice of them to say those nice things about me!”
“Hold on. Are people going to think I’m in the pocket of the big drug companies?”
Finally: “Are they going to run attack ads against me if I don’t vote the way they want?”
The last reaction is the goal of the ad.
She could ask Doug Berger. Berger is currently under fire, as you’ve no doubt seen on Carter’s blogs, from the Home and Hospice Care people.
(Full disclosure: Home and Hospice is Carter’s client. Some people have asked if I’m involved. The answer is no.)
Carter is doing that voodoo that he does so well, this time on Berger – with TV and Internet ads.
And the home and hospice folks are probably spending a lot less money than is Big Pharma, because the Internet videos are cheaper to produce and Carter is probably (I don’t know) buying a lot less TV time.
But they are accomplishing the same purpose. They got Doug Berger’s attention – and that of a lot of people in the legislature and state government.
Politics is a copycat business. If this strategy works, a lot of people will be copying it.
Click here to read and comment on what others are saying
Carter Wrenn posted on July 03, 2009 00:25
As good as our Democratic politicians here in North Carolina are at providing us with scandals…the Academy Award this year is going to South Carolina’s Governor.
Nobody’s seen anything like what’s going on ‘South of the Border’ since Sherman burnt Columbia.
See if you can figure this out:
The Governor went to his wife and actually asked her blessing so he could go see his mistress.
Then he took his ‘spiritual advisor’ with him to meet his mistress at a New York hotel.
Then he explained to his wife he needed some private time to ‘clear his head’ – and flew off to Argentina.
He came back, went into confession, and three days later was still confessing – so now everyone knows this wasn’t his first dalliance.
It gets stranger.
Next the Governor wrote his contributors saying at first ‘he thought he would just go ahead and resign,’ then he decided that ‘for God to really work in his life he shouldn’t get off so lightly’ – so he had to make the sacrifice of staying as governor. And that, by God by the time he’s done, he’s going to show every Baptist in South Carolina the real meaning of ‘a fall from grace, a renewal, a rebuilding and, then, growth to a glorious aftermath.’
If Joel Osteen needs a replacement Sanford’s in the running.
And Sanford wasn’t done: Getting a second wind he started listing his regrets, saying regret Numbe 1 was blowing his political career then adding, ‘And I don’t want to blow my future earning power.’
Finally, he ended on a note of pure triumph, saying, despite it all, “I’ve been able to do my job and in fact excel at it.”
There’s not a politician in sight in North Carolina who can match that. Not even John Edwards.
Then Sanford’s Lt. Governor, Andre Bauer, stepped onto the stage and out of a clear blue sky he up and announced to the whole world he’s not gay. I don’t mean a reporter asked him if he was gay. Instead Bauer brought it up himself. Then, I guess, all the stunned reporter could do was stammer, Well, are you? and Bauer answered: One word, two letters. No.
The next morning those two letters were plastered all over the newspapers in South Carolina.
The Lt. Governor’s 42 and single;—Senator Lindsay Graham is 54 and single and he’d better get ready because it’s open season on South Carolina politicians.
Somewhere in all this there has to be a moral – right? Well, yes.
First, whatever you do, don’t go near an open air dance floor in Uruguay – which is where Sanford met his Latin American soul-mate and lost his mind.
Second, if your wife is following the Sanford scandal, don’t ever, ever tell her you’re going away for a few days to ‘clear your mind.’
And, third, if the day ever comes when temptation sways by your doorstep and the words ‘soul-mate’ pop into your mind – go out and buy a red corvette.
Click here to read and comment on what others are saying
Gary Pearce posted on July 02, 2009 11:14
Back when Lauch Faircloth was a Democrat in Jim Hunt’s Cabinet (pre-1984), he liked to say a governor had to have “command presence.”
Governor Perdue’s poll numbers may be low because the public does not see that quality in her today.
Speaker Joe Hackney had what struck me as a might chilly reaction yesterday to what Mark Johnson described as Perdue’s "in-your-face" message to the legislature about passing a budget.
Hackney said: "We appreciate [Perdue's] participation and encouragement."
When Governor Hunt first took office in 1977, political scientists talked about how weak our governor was. Governors then could not run for more than one term. They had no veto power.
Hunt changed all that. By the time he left office the last time in 2001, the governor’s office was pretty strong. When the annual summer budget deadlock arrived on schedule, Hunt was always a player – involved in both the internal negotiations and the outside game of applying maximum public pressure on the legislature to get what he wanted. It worked most of the time.
Over the last eight years, the legislature got used to ignoring Mike Easley for the most part.
So Perdue inherited two problems: a weakened office and an economy in free fall.
The last couple of weeks, she has been trying to play the outside game. But her campaign to rally teachers got mixed grades even from the teachers. And at least one lobbyist thought Perdue made a mistake by failing to rally the other human-services groups.
While I know absolutely zero about the budget negotiations, there is no public sign that Perdue is a player there.
Her office sent an email yesterday that read like an updated State of the State speech. It began by talking about the economic and budget problems. It touted her steps on “accountability and transparency” (that is, I’m not Mike Easley). It said we’re “doing more with what little we have in these tough times.”
It also boasted about “appointing a CEO of public education,” put “more accountability and transparency in our state’s mental health and probation systems.” Finally, like all governors before her, “We are taking the politics out of decision-making at the Department of Transportation.”
She talked about JobsNOW initiative, something called the “12 in 6 program,” a “green energy” strategy and – that old standby – the fact that she had submitted a “balanced budget.”
But that was just throat-clearing. The money shot:
“We are now at a crossroads: We can choose to protect core education, public safety and health care services, or we can allow the economic crisis to cripple our classrooms.”
To do that, she said she will “work with legislators to finalize the budget.” Of course,
“While we must cut the fat, we must not cut to the bone.”
Her conclusion:
“The time has come for the General Assembly to step up its efforts to pass a budget quickly and with the revenue necessary to protect the classroom. Our children and our economic future depend on it.”
In other words, she is still in search of Command Presence.
Click here to read and comment on what others are saying
Gary Pearce posted on July 01, 2009 12:55
Could there be three more quintessential American stories than Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Billy Mays?
Jackson was the Elvis Presley of his day. He and Elvis were racial crossovers, bringing black music into white America. Someone told me Jackson was the first black performer on MTV back in the days when the network just showed music videos. Jackson married Elvis’ daughter, then died somewhat like Elvis.
For boys (now men) of a certain age, Farrah was the Marilyn Monroe of the day. Now dead of breast cancer, the scourge of women in our day.
Then there was Mays, the high-octane, motormouth salesman.
Three of America’s greatest products – and exports: sex, song and salesmanship.
Click here to read and comment on what others are saying
Gary Pearce posted on July 01, 2009 07:07
Two of the best lines I’ve heard this week re John Edwards and Mark Sanford:
“The definition of narcissism is thinking you'd look good in a sex tape.”
“Now we know why Mark Sanford rejected the federal stimulus package. He already had all the stimulus he needed.”
Click here to read and comment on what others are saying
Carter Wrenn posted on June 30, 2009 21:34
In his State Senate Committee Berger cut home care for 20,000 patients on Medicaid. The reason he gave was simple: He said he had a ‘study’ by a state vendor (named CCME) that proved 45% of the patients in home care were ineligible.
Unfortunately for Senator Berger it turned out the study didn’t say that. In fact, it didn’t say anyone was ineligible. Not one patient. Because it didn’t include an examination of a single patient. So Senator Berger cut home care for 20,000 patients (who were eligible) based on a report he misread.
Read my blog series:
Click here to read and comment on what others are saying
Gary Pearce posted on June 30, 2009 14:10
It’s been a rough couple of elections for Republicans, so I can understand how happy today’s news is making Carter (see his blog below).
But how can you blame him?
Just when you thought the John Edwards affair could not sink lower, here comes Andrew Young.
Just when you thought Mark Sanford had cornered the market on lovesick middle-aged male crises, here comes news there may be a sex tape. Buried in the last graf of the N&O’s front page story.
Talk about leaving readers hanging.
It all is just a reminder that the best book ever written about politics remains Robert Penn Warren’s All The King’s Men. From the stink of the diaper to the stench of the shroud, there is always something.
I wish I could just dismiss it all as tawdry twaddle.
But I have a feeling that the still-running Edwards saga – now competing for headlines with the continuing Mike and Mary Easley saga – is bad news for North Carolina Democrats.
I remember in 2006 and 2008 how Republicans insisted that the string of scandals, sexual and otherwise, involving various GOP officials around the country should have nothing to do with how people voters on the issues of the hour.
But it did anyway.
Is it possible that, in 2010, the main thing voters may have on their minds is how the two former stars of the North Carolina Democratic Party went so far wrong?
Surely that wouldn’t be fair to all the honest, hard-working Democrats laboring to balance budgets and do good things in the legislature and Congress, would it?
But, as that great Democrat John Kennedy said, life isn’t fair.
Click here to read and comment on what others are saying
Carter Wrenn posted on June 30, 2009 14:03
Well, even a blind hog finds an acorn now and then; a year ago Republicans couldn’t buy a break and now gifts are falling out of the sky – of all things, Mrs. Easley is going to contest her dismissal from NCSU.
It’s amazing: After her ‘wooden Indian’ press conference it seemed a safe bet the Governor and Mrs. Easley would enjoy a spell staying out of the headlines and just lay low; but, instead, it looks like Mrs. is going to shoot it out with the professors at State over a ‘severance package – the whole thing is beginning to sound like ‘Ahab and The Whale’ and may end up the same way: Ship sunk. Crew drowned in Indian Ocean.
And, as if one gift isn’t enough, John Edwards is back on the headlines;¾it turns out (back during his political career) North Carolina’s world class poverty fighter begged twenty-something aide Andrew Young to take a spear for him and say Young (not Edwards) was father of maven Rielle Hunter’s child. ‘I’ll take care of you for life,’ Edwards added. And it gets better: Young reveals Edwards participated “in the production of a sex tape with Hunter.”
Imagine that: A fellow crazy enough to run for President, get tangled up with a blonde and produce a sex tape.
It’s only Tuesday but what with Argentine girlfriends, pugilistic Governors wives and a new fandango courtesy of John Edwards it’s already been a crazy week.
Click here to read and comment on what others are saying
Carter Wrenn posted on June 27, 2009 18:15
My guess is hardly anyone reading this blog remembers when the movie Deep Throat came out 37 years ago – but there was an article about it in the paper last Saturday.
Some sleuth has figured out that back in 1972 (when I was nineteen) the FBI moved heaven and earth to keep the movie out of theaters;—as the newspaper put it the FBI fought a determined rear-guard action to “roll back what became a cultural shift toward more permissive entertainment” – and lost. Big time.
“The story of Deep Throat,” a constitutional law professor at Rutgers says, “is the story of the last gasp of the forces lined up against the cultural and sexual revolution and it is the advent of the entry of pornography in the mainstream.”
No one can argue with that.
The FBI standing for less sex back in 1972 proved to be a losing proposition – so, since, we’ve progressed from Leave it to Beaver to Sex and the City and the roots of enlightenment now run so deep just the other day, according to another newspaper story, a ‘lady of the evening’ in Denver placed an ad on ‘Craig’s List’ then flew to Raleigh to ply her trade.
Somehow, in the midst of all this progress, it’s hard not to feel a little nostalgia for the good old days of I Love Lucy and wonder if enlightenment isn’t what it was cracked up to be – but, then, I’m not nineteen anymore.
Click here to read and comment on what others are saying
Gary Pearce posted on June 26, 2009 09:18
That old Watergate adage may dictate the 2010 elections. Democrats – both in Raleigh and Washington – may follow the money straight to big-time mid-term defeats.
Sometimes at the beach, two waves merge together to make a big wave that about drowns you. That may happen next year.
Nationally, the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll suggests that moderate and independent voters are becoming more and more concerned about the level of federal spending. And health-care reform could add another $1 trillion. Obama is still popular, but the poll numbers should worry the White House and Congress.
In North Carolina, Democrats are about to walk the plank on $1 billion-plus in new taxes. All my Democratic friends say legislators need to show some “courage,” raise taxes and protect education and health care.
Well, who’s going to protect education and health care if Republicans win the House or Senate – or both – next year?
One perceptive Democratic legislator took issue with my analysis that the party – and Governor Perdue – have to choose between making Democrats mad over budget cuts or Republicans and Independents mad over tax increases. Actually, he said, we’re probably going to make both sides mad.
That – on top of the continuing Easley saga – could spell trouble next year.
Click here to read and comment on what others are saying
|
|
Purchase Carter's Book:
Spirits of the Air
|
|