The New Ad Wars
July 3, 2009 - by
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.
The New Ad Wars
July 3, 2009/
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.