Who Can? Obamacan!

Winner of MoveOn.Org's Consumer-Generated Ad Contest

Posted by Ken Wheaton on 05.12.08 @ 03:01 PM

David Gaw and Lance Mungia of Monrovia, Calif., were the winners in MoveOn.org's "Obama in 30 Seconds" contest. The two came up with an ad featuring an Air Force vet and lifelong Republican explaining why he's voting for Barack Obama. MoveOn says it will "spend $200,000 to run the winning ad on national cable as well as on network television in Ohio, Wisconsin, and Colorado."



Interestingly, according to MoveOn, "the votes in this contest nearly doubled the votes in MoveOn's 'Bush in 30 Seconds' contest in 2004." Other winning entries can be seen here.

McCain Ad Tackles Environment

Plenty of Room in the Middle for Republican Candidate

Posted by Ken Wheaton on 05.12.08 @ 12:37 PM

John McCain's camp is obviously trying to lay the groundwork for independent and moderate voters. Why else spend money on an ad about the environment. There's no way he'll get to the left of Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama on this issue, but the good news is a) he doesn't have to and b) George W. Bush and the current crop of Republicans have left him a million miles of room between the right and the center. In the below ad he frames climate change as something that has to be addresses as both an environmental issue and a national security issue. He also gets a jab in at the regulation-happy Dems. He loses points, though, for another visually awful ad, what with the high-speed effects.

Fenton, MoveOn Form Democratic 'Tuesday Team'

Tor Myhren, Ernest Lupinacci, Bennett McCarroll Among Those Named

Posted by Ira Teinowitz on 05.06.08 @ 02:35 PM

WASHINGTON (AdAge.com) -- Nearly a quarter century after a Tuesday Team of Madison Avenue experts helped Ronald Reagan win the White House, Democratic progressives are forming their own version and tapping former McCann Worldgroup Creative Director Jonathan Cranin to head it.

McCain Beefs Up Ad Roster for General Election

Fred Davis Returns to Fold; Chris Mottola on Board

Posted by Ira Teinowitz on 05.06.08 @ 10:34 AM

WASHINGTON (AdAge.com) -- Sen. John McCain's campaign has quietly tapped two veteran GOP advertising executives to bulk up the team for the fall fight, one of whom is Fred Davis, who had left last year during darker times for Team McCain.

Mr. Davis, of Strategic Perception, Los Angeles, and Chris Mottola, a Philadelphia consultant, have joined Mike Hudome on the Foxhole Productions media team now headed by Mark McKinnon, vice chairman of WPP Group's Public Strategies in Austin, Texas.

The Gold Standard in Political Marketing

Posted by Ken Wheaton on 05.02.08 @ 05:49 PM

It doesn't get any better than this. Note, too, that he's pushing Jim Webb as Barack Obama's running mate. That actually is genius. It would certainly help Obama against McCain's military record and help him with non-elitist white rural voters.

Obama Takes Star Turn in Republican Ads

Candidate Used As Weapon Against Down-Ticket Dems

Posted by Evan Tracey on 05.01.08 @ 04:44 PM

Barack Obama's campaign has spent more than $70 million to air more than 121,000 campaign ads. But the ads starring Obama that his campaign is not paying for are attracting the most attention. Recently, we have seen candidates, interest groups and a state political party all using Obama's quotes, pastor and likeness in an attempt to attack their opponents.

Vanity Fair Portrays Democratic Civil War

Posted by Ken Wheaton on 05.01.08 @ 10:56 AM

James Wolcott paints a fascinating picture of the ongoing feud between supporters of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. It's a great, fun read. But there's one slight problem with it. Wolcott attributes entirely too much power to Daily Kos and its founder Markos Moulitsas Zúniga:

"Daily Kos dominates the firmament as the Battlestar Galactica of Net-roots activism, an electronic-beehive amalgam of fund-raising machine, bulletin board, crisis center, poll-data aggregator, diary showcase, and collective mood ring that proved its mettle with the Democratic victories in 2006, due in no small part to the Great Orange Satan's ability to pinpoint winnable races, mobilize donation support, and stoke morale. "

Is that right? Seems to me that those races--many of them won by CENTRIST Democrats like Jim Webb--would have been won without Kos. Also, and I've said this before, considering others championed by Kos--most notably Howard Dean and Ned Lamont--Kos is the Bob Shrum on the internet. As Jeff Jarvis says, Kos is a would-be party boss. Emphasis on would-be.

More Than $76M Spent on Energy Issues

Obama Outspends Clinton; Energy Companies Spend Big

Posted by Evan Tracey on 04.30.08 @ 04:31 PM

Since the beginning of the year, more than $76 million has been spent on the issues related with going green. Recently TNS's Campaign Media Analysis Group released its newsletter, The Eye, focused on energy-related ad spending. Here's what was covered:

Maya Angelou Bats for Clinton in N.C. Ad

Posted by Ken Wheaton on 04.30.08 @ 11:26 AM

Perhaps seeing an opportunity to chip away a few black North Carolina voters from Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton's campaign is running a 60-second ad featuring Maya Angelou. Angelou's wording here echoes a Clinton ad running in Indiana at the moment and reflects on the American promise. Clinton, she says, "intends to help our country become what it can become." Of course, in terms of swaying specific audiences, one has to wonder if a poet actually speaks to any demographic. Angelou's not even identified in the spot. Having been fortunate enough to spend a fair amount of time outside of the sequestered and self-absorbed realms of academia and media, I wouldn't be surprised if there are a significant number of people thinking, "Hey, why's that nice old lady rambling on about Hillary Clinton?" Meanwhile, Barack Obama is busy stomping out the Jeremiah Wright fires.

Today in Presidential Ads: McCain and Clinton

Posted by Ken Wheaton on 04.29.08 @ 03:21 PM

In this 60-second spot, John McCain talks health care. "The problem with health care in America is not the quality of health care, it's the availability and the affordability. And that has to do with the dramatic increase in the cost of health care."



Hillary Clinton promises to deliver on the American Dream.