Mad About “Mad Men” (Or Maybe Not So Much)

Posted on March 24, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

It’s a hung jury on the much-anticipated fifth season of AMC’s critically acclaimed/declaimed series “Mad Men.”

The good (from Barbara Lippert’s Mad Blog at MediaPost):

Frankly, my two major fears about the coming season are: a) that Don will actually marry Megan; and b) polyester.

SPOILER ALERT: We do know that Megan is in the season opener, and even has a musical number; and thankfully, the drama is still set in the 1960s (1967 or so) with nary a leisure suit in sight.

Oh, but there’s so much deliciousness ahead!  As an Englishman previously said, “Enjoy your champagne and delicatessen!”

What I relish most,  Mad Blog-wise, are the genius commenter threads. Please go ahead and comment on your feelings about the coming season. I will post my reviews on Tuesday mornings.

Meanwhile, here’s to the returning Mad Men! Let’s hope it’s all that, and a box of Velveeta!

The bad (from Nancy deWolf Smith’s Wall Street Journal column):

The two-hour premiere ticks by mainly as a series of vignettes where familiar characters strut their familiar stuff and talk about work that no one ever seems to do. When it’s over fans will have gotten their “Mad Men” fix, if not much of a high.

The ugly (from Alessandra Stanley’s New York Times review):

The two-hour premiere feels long and is a little dreary, repeating many of the same themes that were so new and unexpected when the series first began. Certain genres have inherent limits, and just as there are only so many ways zombies can storm a stalled car on “The Walking Dead,” there are only so many jokes to be had from an adult’s cradling an infant in one hand and a cigarette in the other on “Mad Men.”

The downside of success is too much devotion. “Mad Men” fatigue is brought on by all the fuss and cute imitation: the Banana Republic fashion line; copycat shows like “Pan Am” and “Magic City,” a new Starz series set in 1960s Miami;  ’60s memoirs, coffee table books, cookbooks, cocktail recipes and magazine spreads; “Mad Men” costume parties; and “Mad Men” drinking tours of Manhattan.

It’s not fair, really, but a show that became a hit because it seemed so original has been so co-opted that it now looks like a cliché.

See you Sunday night at 9.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

LinsADity!

Posted on March 24, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

New York Knicks phenom Jeremy Lin is the new Lindorser for Volvo, as Bloomberg New reports:

Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks signed a two-year contract to promote Volvo Cars in China and the U.S.

Lin, a 23-year-old Harvard University graduate, sparked the phenomenon that became known as Linsanity after he took over as the Knicks’ starting point guard last month. His play helped get the Knicks back into playoff contention while boosting the team’s television ratings, ticket prices and shares.

“He has become a global cultural phenomenon,” John Maloney, president and chief executive of Volvo Cars of North America LLC, said at a news conference yesterday in New York.

Lin, the first Chinese- or Taiwanese-American to play in the National Basketball Association, will appear in his first television commercials for Volvo after the NBA season ends. He’ll be used in promotional materials immediately, company officials said.

Which apparently includes this full-page ad in Friday’s New York Times:

Or, in other words, a flash-Lin-the-pan.

Time will tell, as the big time journalists say.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Twitterati: Sponsored Tweets Out of Character

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

The Boston Herald has bad news today for the Twitterverse:

Bitter over Twitter ads

Twitter has rolled out a new advertising platform that disguises promotional tweets within the normal stream and risks major backlash from users.

“Because it’s really short-form, a lot of people have grown to view Twitter as an essential form of fast communication,” Carl Howe, vice president at the Hub-based Yankee Group, told the Herald. “Ads make this an essential form of slow communication. It ends up polluting the well.”

Here’s an example that Sneak ADtack! management received a short while ago:

By itself, no big deal, right? But undoubtedly annoying in numbers.

According to the Herald piece, though, sponsored tweets are a life-and-death matter:

The beauty of Twitter was that they hadn’t turned into Facebook,” [Yankee Group’s] Howe said, referring to the increased number of ads within the social network.

He noted that the purity of communication on Twitter was even credited for the political uprisings that became known as the Arab Spring.

“Nobody would have wanted to see a protester get shot because they were busy swiping away a promoted tweet,” Howe said. “That’s what happens when you add noise to essential communication.”

Seriously? Shot while swiping? Come back to earth, Mr. Howe.

 

Originally posted on the Newer! Improveder! Sneak ADtack!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Most Interesting Man In The (PAC) World

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

In the course of the GOP presidential primary, we’ve heard plenty about PAC men Sheldon Adelson (pro-Gingrich Super PAC Winning Our Future) and Foster Friess (pro-Santorum Super PAC Red White and Blue Fund).

Now comes Texas billionaire Harold Simmons (pro-Whoever Super PAC contributor).

From Thursday’s Wall Street Journal:

Texas Billionaire Doles Out Election’s Biggest Checks

DALLAS—Few people want to defeat President Barack Obama more than billionaire Harold Clark Simmons, who is willing to spend many millions of dollars in the quest. As it happens, campaign rules now give him the opportunity.

Watching a TV news report that Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum was rising in polls last month, Mr. Simmons wondered about the prospects of the former Pennsylvania senator. He called his personal political muse, Republican strategist Karl Rove.

“Is he worth investing into his super PAC?” Mr. Simmons asked. He rose from his leather recliner in the den and stood at a bay window overlooking swans gliding on a lake encircled by 17,000 tulips. “Does he have a chance?”

“Yes, I wouldn’t count him out,” Mr. Rove said. Mr. Simmons’s wife, Annette, who was keen on Mr. Santorum, promptly donated $1 million to his super PAC, cash badly needed for an ad blitz ahead of the Super Tuesday primaries.

The 80-year-old Texan, who heads Contran Corp., a chemicals and metals conglomerate, gave hefty donations to the super PACs supporting other GOP candidates during similar moments in the spotlight: Rick Perry’s optimistic entry into the race last summer, and after the debate-driven surge of Newt Gingrich. Mr. Simmons has so far given $800,000—including $500,000 this week—to super PACs backing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who won the Illinois primary Tuesday and contends no rival can catch him in the GOP delegate race.

It isn’t particularly important which man wins the nomination, for Mr. Simmons simply wants to defeat the president and reduce the reach of government. “Any of these Republicans would make a better president than that socialist, Obama,” said Mr. Simmons during two days of rare interviews at his Dallas home and office. “Obama is the most dangerous American alive…because he would eliminate free enterprise in this country.”

Helpful WSJ chart:

Just what the 2012 election needs: An indiscriminate political ATM.

This campaign just keeps getting more and more baroque.

Or is that baroke?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Why Did The NYT Give Bill Maher A Free Pass?

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

Riddle us this:

How does Bill Maher get a New York Times op-ed piece calling for a moratorium on apologies for intemperate language without the Times noting that Maher is smack dab in the middle of an intemperate-remarks rumpus of his own?

First, Maher’s op-ed:

Please Stop Apologizing

THIS week, Robert De Niro made a joke about first ladies, and Newt Gingrich said it was “inexcusable and the president should apologize for him.” Of course, if something is “inexcusable,” an apology doesn’t make any difference, but then again, neither does Newt Gingrich.

Mr. De Niro was speaking at a fund-raiser with the first lady, Michelle Obama. Here’s the joke: “Callista Gingrich. Karen Santorum. Ann Romney. Now do you really think our country is ready for a white first lady?”

The first lady’s press secretary declared the joke “inappropriate,” and Mr. De Niro said his remarks were “not meant to offend.” So, as these things go, even if the terrible damage can never be undone, at least the healing can begin. And we can move on to the next time we choose sides and pretend to be outraged about nothing.

Except the outrage over Maher’s remarks is about something: How Democrats can defend his offensive comments about Sarah Palin (among others) while getting the vapors over Rush Limbaugh’s offensive comments about Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke.

Don’t get us wrong: The Times is well within its rights to offer op-ed space to Maher. But the paper owes it to its readers to note Maher’s role in this debate as well.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Etch A Stretch

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

Mitt Romney can’t stand the gaff(e).

Fred Barnes highlighted the problem in a recent Weekly Standard column:

Gaffing His Way to Victory

Mitt Romney is leading the league in gaffes. We know this because the media are counting. The Weeklists his “9 worst clueless-rich-man gaffes.” The Wall Street Journal trumps that with “Romney’s Top 10 Wealth Gaffes.” The Christian Science Monitor refers to the “Mitt Romney gaffe monster.”

This is bad for Romney. Next to being called racist or a homophobe, the worst thing that can be said about a candidate is he’s gaffe-prone. It suggests his brain-to-mouth hookup is faulty when he talks off-the-cuff, and he lacks a grip on political reality. Thus the candidate’s image and campaign suffer.

And boy, is Romney suffering now. He’s consistently had day-after gaffes (gaffeshow via ABC News) in the wake of primary victories, but now he’s contagious to the point of staff-gaffe.

From today’s New York Times:

Romney’s Day to Relish Is Marred by Aide’s Gaffe

The “relish” part involved an endorsement of Romney by former Florida governor Jeb Bush (R-George Is Fredo, I’m Michael).

The “marred” part is this:

 

That’s right – Romney gunsel Eric Fehrnstrom actually said:

“Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It’s almost like an Etch-a-Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all over again.”

Hey! Just like Romney himself!

At that point, it was all over but the moonwalking.

Fehrnstrom’s moonwalk (via The Christian Science Monitor):

“[A]s we move from the primary to the general election, the campaign changes. It’s a different race, with different candidates, and the main issue now becomes President Obama’s failure to create jobs and get this economy moving.”

Romney’s moonwalk (via the Times):

“The issues I’m running on will be exactly the same,” Mr. Romney said. “I’m running as a conservative Republican, I was a conservative Republican governor, I’ll be running as a conservative Republican nominee — or, excuse me, at that point, hopefully, nominee for president.”

Clearly, this is a campaign that can’t moonwalk and chew gum at the same time.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

That’s Just So Mean! (Romney Illinoise Edition)

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

Mitt Romney (R-Am I the Nominee Yet?) celebrating his Illinois primary victory, compliments of the Boston Herald’s front page (via the Newseum’s Today’s Front Pages):

Listen – I find Romney as annoying as the next guy (assuming the next guy isn’t Newt Gingrich). But making him look like a cardboard clownface you throw a beanbag into?

That just . . . actually, feels sort of right.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

RNC’s “War on Women” Counterattack

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

Last week MoveOn.org began running a paid TV spot accusing the GOP of waging a war on women:

 

This week the Republican National Committee launched a counterattack in the form of an unpaid Web video:

 

CNN anchor Erin Burnett is not happy about her inclusion in the RNC video. Glenn Beck’s The Blaze is not sure about MoveOn’s fidelity to the truth.

In other words, political business as usual.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Joe Biden Values And Respects The Hardworking Staff

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

Fan mail from some flounder:

Friend —

I’m officially back on the campaign trail. And it feels great to be out there.

Because really, what being on the campaign trail means to me is simple: talking to you.

What supporters across the country are thinking about right now is what’s going to be on our minds every day between now and Election Day. And for four years after that.

So I’d like to ask you one question right now: Of all the issues important to you, what’s the bottom-line reason you’re with us in this fight?

You can answer that question here.

We’ve all got a dog in this fight.

For some folks, it’s making sure we’re continuing to create millions of good jobs here at home, and building an economy that’s made to last — not for the next election cycle or the next couple years, but for the long run. Or the idea that we ought to be protecting and strengthening Social Security and Medicare for future generations of Americans.

We want to take each of those reasons, and drill them into this thing we’re building together.

And right now, I’m asking for your help. Let us know what’s on your mind, and help shape the conversation in the months to come:

http://my.barackobama.com/Your-Bottom-Line-Issue

I’ll see you out there.

– Joe

A regular Joe, no?

The hardworking staff is reserving judgment.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Jay Carney (Barker) Flacks For White House

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

As part of the Obama Media Machine 2.0, the White House has reinstated its First Questions program (according to techPresident), “during which Press Secretary Jay Carney will answer on [sic] video questions posted on social media.”

Representative sample:

 

The Obama administration is running a highly sophisticated new-media operation largely under the radar of the mainstream press, which is either too lazy or too stupid to recognize it.

But the truth is: The Obama White House isn’t just end-running the news media. It’s slowly but surely trying to replace it.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment