At post time, Ann Romney absolutely owns the Drudge Report above the fold.
Earlier, though, Barak Obama owned @AnnDRomney – or rented it, anyway. When you plugged that Twitter handle into the search box, you got this:
Welcome to the cybercampaign.
P.S. I talked about the new digital tactics a couple of months ago with Here & Now’s Robin Young. Listen here. (And now.)
The local reviews for the new Broadway play Magic/Bird are, well, a jump ball.
From the Boston Herald’s Inside Track:
‘Magic/Bird’ has got game
“Magic/Bird” had the team, the plays and an exuberant fan base to open on Broadway last night with a slam dunk!
(It’s possible that the Herald will also send a theater critic to review the play, although the hardworking staff kind of doubts it.)
From the Boston Globe’s Don Aucoin:
‘Magic/Bird’ misses the mark on Broadway
Nut graf:
With this play, the team behind “Lombardi,’’ a 2010 Broadway drama about the late Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi, has heaved up an airball — or, at best, a jumper that clangs off the rim.
The plodding pace, greatest-hits superficiality, and hagiographic tone of “Magic/Bird’’ feels jarringly dated, especially at a time when ESPN’s “30 for 30’’ documentary series has shown what provocative stories can be found and told by those willing to probe beneath the myths that surround sports icons.
Instead, “Magic/Bird’’ floats along the surface, giving off a strong whiff of authorized biography.
Ouch.
Here’s a trailer in case you want their side of the story:
And here’s the New York Times review in case you want a tie-breaker:
Basketball Rivals in a Rematch With Low Stakes
About a third of the way through “Magic/Bird,” a new play about the basketball greats Magic Johnson and Larry Bird that opened on Broadway Wednesday night at the Longacre Theater, a moment of conflict, that crucial building block of drama, finally arrives.
Taunting insults are exchanged. Simmering hostility is heated to a boil. Words are flung like fists, and violence threatens to erupt.
Unfortunately this tense encounter does not involve either of the play’s nice-guy central characters but anonymous fans in a bar, rooting for their favorite teams and displaying the Rottweiler instincts of sports maniacs the world over. Their brief, volatile encounter turns out to be the most dramatic moment in “Magic/Bird,” an efficiently informative but uninspired trek through the lives of two towering (forgive the pun) figures in sports history.
Double ouch.
We’ll see how soon this one fouls out.
Cools to Newcastle Brown Ale:
A new ad from GOP gunsel Karl Rove’s front group, via Politico’s Morning Score:
CROSSROADS GPS – GOING UP WITH A $1.7 MILLION BUY IN 6 STATES: In an ad entitled “Too Much,” focused on President Barack Obama and energy prices, the outside group Crossroads GPS is going on air for a week on broadcast and cable in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio and Virginia, with a total buy costing $1.7 million. It’s the first of many Obama hits to come.
The spot:
The Great Gas Price Bakeoff is taking center stage in the Dem vs. GOP ad wars, despite indications that gas prices are not Americans’ top concern (see APM’s Marketplace piece here).
But they’ll do until something better comes along.
The 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs started tonight in an auspicious manner.
Flyers rally to beat Penguins 4-3 in overtime
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Jakub Voracek has no idea how good the Philadelphia Flyers could be if they played 60 full minutes, or beyond.
At the moment, it’s hardly necessary.
Voracek beat Marc-Andre Fleury from in close 2:23 into overtime to give the Flyers a 4-3 comeback victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday night in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.
“‘It was a lucky bounce for me but I’ll take it,” Voracek said after scoring his first career playoff goal.
So will the hardworking staff, which (full disclosure) has been a made Rangers fan since the age of twelve, when we ventured to the old Madison Square Garden, sat in the side balcony, and saw roughly two-thirds of the ice.
But soaked up three-thirds of the sport.
Something others might also do this year, according to the Wall Street Journal:
Hockey Night in… America?
As hockey’s playoffs begin Wednesday, the NHL believes the stage is set. The time is now. Finally, the league is poised to get what it has never had: a lot of people talking about hockey in April. At least some of whom don’t end every sentence with the word “eh” . . .
For the first time in the NHL’s 95-year history, every playoff game will be televised nationally, with most of the games appearing on networks that are available in at least 80% of homes with cable TV. And the league may be ripe for growth. NHL telecasts on NBC’s channels reached 14.9 million viewers this year, up 14% from last season.
Eh?
A while back, Wordpress stopped telling the hardworking staff that its new posts were groovy and rad, and started quoting Writers on Writing with each new addition.
Some new representative samples:
I’m a drinker with writing problems.
– Brendan Behan
The only reason for being a professional writer is that you can’t help it.
– Leo Rosten
Be obscure clearly.
– E.B. White
There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.
– W. Somerset Maugham
And the hardworking staff’s favorite:
I try to leave out the parts that people skip.
– Elmore Leonard
Copy that.
P.S. The quote WordPress attached to this post?
A metaphor is like a simile.
– Author Unknown
And deservedly so.
Now that Rick Santorum (R-Never Did Beat Me, Mitt) has dropped out of the GOP presidential primary race, the good citizens of the Keystone State will not have to suffer incessant viewings of this Romney campaign scorched-earth TV spot (view it on Politico’s Burns & Haberman blog).
Small blessings, yes?
Presidential wannabe Ron Paul (R-Did You Miss Me?) is back in da hizzouse!
(Via Politico’s Morning Score)
EXCLUSIVE – PAUL GOING ON THE AIR IN TEXAS: As he kicks off a three-day campaign swing across his home state—with town halls in College Station, Fort Worth and San Antonio—Ron Paul is going on the air with a memorable 30-second ad that makes parting shots at all three of his remaining opponents and ends with the cracking of a whip. This is part of a six-figure buy that will air statewide on cable and targeted broadcast. The campaign is also staffing up in Texas and plans a hard push for the May 29th primary.
THE SCRIPT: “Let’s get this straight – we’re debating between a big-spending, debt-ceiling-raising fiscal liberal, the Moon colony guy, a moderate from Massachusetts or a Texan with a real plan to balance the budget,” the narrator says. “Get with it people. Only one candidate can stand up for Texas. Ron Paul isn’t playing games. Five federal bureaucracies – gone! A trillion dollars cut [in] year one. Get Washington off your back. Big. Bold. Texan!”
The spot:
Can we agree that Ron Paul has had the funkiest TV spots of the 2012 GOP presidential primary?
I knew we could.
P.S. For the $9.8 billion estimate, see here.
Act One:
Presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney (R-Are They Gone Yet?) has gone all-in on the GOP Pennsylvania primary (via the Wall Street Journal):
After previously debating how much of an effort to make in Mr. Santorum’s home state, the Romney campaign purchased $2.9 million worth of advertising time in Pennsylvania, a person close to the campaign said. Mr. Santorum’s campaign had just $1.2 million at the end of March, according to Mr. Santorum’s senior campaign strategist, John Brabender. The Santorum campaign plans to air TV ads in Pennsylvania, but it will be a much smaller advertising investment than Mr. Romney’s, Mr. Brabender said.
Politico’s Morning Score said “Romney is going for the knockout blow against Rick Santorum, hoping to humiliate his fading opponent in his home state and thus avoid potential embarrassments that would come from prolonging the primary fight into May.”
(Humiliate Santorum? At this point, the hardworking staff is guessing Romney would just like to beat him.)
Act Two:
From Mediaite:
Romney Campaign Pulls Anti-Santorum Ad In Pennsylvania While Daughter Bella Is Hospitalized
According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Mitt Romney‘s campaign has pulled a TV ad targetingRick Santorum from Pennsylvania stations until further notice in the wake of Santorum’s daughter, Bella, being hospitalized.
The ad spot — which put the campaign back $2.9 million — was to start airing Monday morning, in Philadelphia, Erie, Scranton and Altoona. It specifically narrowed in on Santorum’s 2006 loss in the state and his record as Senator.
So maybe Romney does have a heart. Then again, Havahart is actually a trap.
UPDATE: NPR’s Ari Shapiro says the $2.9 mil is not about beating Santorum, but positioning Romney for the general in Pennsylvania, which is a big swing state.
Here’s an idea – maybe it’s both.
From our Fun Facts to Know & Dispel desk
The current issue of Advertising Age brings this:
Study: Young Consumers Switch Media 27 Times An Hour
Survey of ‘Digital Natives’ Indicates Brands Must Step Up Creative Game to Hold Their Attention
It’s every advertiser’s worst nightmare: consumers so distracted by a dizzying array of media choices that they no longer notice the commercials supporting them. And its time might be closer than you think.
A recent study found that consumers in their 20s (“digital natives”) switch media venues about 27 times per nonworking hour—the equivalent of more than 13 times during a standard half-hour TV show.
The study of consumer media habits was commissioned by Time Warner’s‘s Time Inc. and conducted by Boston’s Innerscope Research. Though it had only 30 participants, the study offers at least directional insight into a generation that always has a smartphone at arm’s length and flips from a big TV set to a smaller tablet screen and back again at a moment’s notice.
Really?
Thirty participants?
This isn’t a “study.” It’s a bullshit session.
And it’s not “directional insight.”
It’s bullshit.
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