To Know Trump . . . (Mitt Romney Endorsement Edition)

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

Donald Trump is to Corporate America what plaid is to Bermuda shorts (Campaign Outsider Analogy pat. pending).

Mitt Romney, by contrast, is khaki.

So how does Trump’s endorsement benefit Romney, besides locking up the comb-over vote?

The big announcement from the Trump Las Vegas Hotel:

 

When you think about it, the most remarkable (as Mitt might say) aspect of this isn’t Trump’s squishy endorsement of Romney (“He’s not going to allow bad things to continue to happen to this country we all love”).

It’s Romney’s response:

There are some things you just can’t imagine happening in your life. This is one of them. Being in Donald Trump’s magnificent hotel and having his endorsement  is a delight – I’m so honored and pleased to have his endorsement . . .

Given that Romney is 100% irony-deficient, we’re forced to take that statement at face value. Then again, remember what has previously “delighted” the former Massachusetts governor (via New York Times Op-It Girl Maureen Dowd):

Hunting, Dear Sir? Delighted!

CHARLESTON, S.C.

Watching Mitt Romney in the Myrtle Beach debate gave me acid flashbacks to Poppy Bush.

Maybe it was when Mittens decorously noted, in front of the raucous, bloodthirsty South Carolina crowd: “When I get invited, I’m delighted to be able to go hunting.”

You know those small varmints Romney said he hunted? That would be Donald Trump’s hair.

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Microsoft Takes Hard Line On Google Tracking Changes

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

Google’s new piracy – sorry, privacy – policy has caused quite a ruckus this week. From PC Mag:

Google Overhauls, Consolidates Privacy Policies

Google said Tuesday that it has instituted a new, streamlined privacy policy that will consolidate the company’s 70 or so privacy policies across its products down to one – which will pull data from Google users if they’re logged in.

The new privacy policy will go into effect on March 1, Google said.

Google’s business model, like many others around the Web, has been to build a profile of its users and deliver them targeted, high-value advertising, paid by its advertising partners. In return, users get access to a wide variety of different services, from Maps to Gmail to Picasa, whose data can be integrated and shared.

Except . . .

[S]ome worried that information stored in Gmail, for example, could make its way over to Maps. “There is no way anyone expected this,” Jeffrey Chester, executive director of privacy advocacy group the Centre for Digital Democracy, said to the Washington Post. “There is no way a user can comprehend the implication of Google collecting across platforms for information about your health, political opinions and financial concerns.”

Enter Microsoft, which has launched an ad campaign challenging the Google changes. Newspaper version:

From PC Mag:

The advertisement, set to appear in major U.S. newspapers every day this week, is titled “Putting people first” and focuses on how the search giant’s new changes affect you and your personal information. “Why are they so interested in doing this that they would risk this kind of backlash?” the ad asks. “One logical reason: Every data point they collect and connect to you increases how valuable you are to an advertiser.”

Behold the future of the Internet: Nothing is free anymore.

You either pay with money or you pay with personal information.

But rest assured: You pay.

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Let The $4 Billion Rumpus Begin! (Solyndra Redux Edition)

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

Last December Crossroads GPS , the front group for former House of Bush consigliere and current GOP gunsel Karl Rove, ran a TV spot bashing Barack Obama for funding the star-cursed energy company Solyndra, which got half-a-billion dollars from the federal government when it was clearly going down the hopper.

Now Crossroads GPS is back to beat the dead horse. From Politico’s Playbook:

FIRST LOOK: “Crossroads GPS today launched a new spot, ‘Every Level,’ that will air on national cable in a one week buy totaling $500,000. It is the second Crossroads TV spot on the Solyndra scandal. In an accompanying strategy memo, Crossroads GPS president Steven Law says Solyndra encapsulates … ‘an economic ecosystem where participants are rewarded not for what they know, but for who they know; a lucrative spoils system.”YouTube http://bit.ly/zjdF6N … 2-page strategy memo http://bit.ly/wYg5g7

The spot:

 

The hardworking staff hasn’t read the 2-page strategy memo, but we’re guessing it boils down to this:

Typical Washington (blah blah blah) line up for handouts (blah blah blah) Solyndra (blah blah blah) bankrupt (blah blah blah) FBI investigates (blah blah blah) more red ink

Blah blah blah.

Except for this, also from Politico’s Playbook:

AP’s Jack Gillum: “American Crossroads, the group backed by former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove, raised more than $51 million along with its nonprofit arm [Crossroads GPS] last year.”

That’s a lot of blah blah blah. With plenty more to come.

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It’s Romneyspeak!

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

Mitt Romney may be a flip-flopper, but his campaign staffers are flip-the-birders. At leaast when it comes to the news media.

Exhibit Umpteen appears in ABC’s The Note, which today posted this set of DUELING MEMOS:

FROM TEAM OBAMA: . . . “Team Romney wants voters and the national media to believe its victory reflects its candidate’s positions,” deputy Obama campaign manager Stephanie Cutter wrote in a memo to reporters Wednesday. “In reality, it is a product of the fact that Romney and his SuperPAC allies carpet-bombed Gingrich by spending five times as much money on Florida’s airwaves, and running more than 60 television ads for every one Gingrich and his allies aired,” she said.

FROM TEAM ROMNEY: “It’s no wonder that with Gov. Romney coming off a big victory in a must-win general election state that the White House would be worried about having to face Gov. Romney and be held accountable for President Obama’s failures,” Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in a statement this morning. “Our opponents would love for you to believe that we have out-spent our rivals 5 to 1, but, per usual, the facts are not on their side. In SC, those gunning for us spent over $7 million while we and allies of Gov. Romney spent a combined $4 million.”

So, the Romneynauts didn’t outspend the Gingrichites 5 to 1 in Florida because the Ginrichites outspent the Romneynauts in South Carolina? Is that what they’re saying here? Because if so, 1) it’s more nonsensical that Edward Lear, and 2) it’s not even true.

From MSNBC’s First Read:

In South Carolina, Romney and the top pro-Romney Super PAC Restore Our Future outspent Gingrich and his allies by a nearly 2-to-1 margin ($4.4 million vs. $2.4 million).

It’s hard to know which is more insulting – the lie, or the expectation we’d fall for the slipshod dodge.

Regardless, it’s clear: About the only time Romney’s mouthpieces tell the truth is when they’re lying.

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Let The $4 Billion Rumpus Begin! (Santorum Nev-ad-a Edition)

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum (R-Shouldn’t You Be at Home Taking Care of Your Daughter?) has shrugged off his third-place finish in Florida and gone full-tilt into Nevada for this Saturday’s caucuses, as The Hill duly notes:

Santorum up in Colorado, Nevada with anti-Gingrich commercial

Fresh on the heels of announcing January fundraising numbers in excess of $4 million, Rick Santorum’s presidential campaign announced a new television ad that will begin airing Tuesday in Colorado and Nevada.

The ad attacks Newt Gingrich as being too liberal for the GOP nomination by arguing that he shares many policy positions with President Obama and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Said ad:

 

As one CNN chin-stroker (the hardworking staff forgets which) noted last night, Santorum could level the same charges at Mitt Romney (R-Have I Won Yet?), but chooses to go after Gingrich instead, in a (probably vain) attempt to turn the Republican presidential primary into a two-man race.

Not gonna work. But Mitt says thanks.

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Writing’s On The Wall For Stealth Advertisers

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

There’s a new front in the stealth marketing war on American consumers: urban murals sponsored by big corporations.

From LA Weekly:

Retna and El Mac’s Latest Mural: Stealth Advertising at Its Graffiti Best

While you were sleeping, or maybe it was just us, Retna and El Mac threw up another masterpiece in Westlake. The mural has been complete for over a week now, but LA Weekly was there as the first sketches went down at MacArthur Park Primary Center, courtesy of Procter and Gamble.


This legal art wall, on the side of a mid-city arts magnet kindergarten and preschool, is not ostensibly branded but was commissioned by Pampers’ using their community tag line, “Every baby is a little miracle to be celebrated, supported and protected,” in two of Retna’s signature fonts. Surrounding the centerpiece mother and child by El Mac, are 10 roses, with names representing real children, chosen by P+G through public story submissions. Stealth advertising at its graffiti best.

Or worst. Depending on how you look at it.

Originally posted on the Newer! Improveder! Sneak ADtack!

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It’s Good To Live In A Two-Daily Town (Scorpions-In-A-Bowl Edition)

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

In the ongoing coverage of Kevin White’s death, both Boston dailies include pieces today on his administration’s Bright Young Things,  described this way to the Boston Herald by once and future scorpion George Regan:

“It wasn’t for the faint of heart. It was like a bunch of scorpions in a bowl. If you could survive that, you could survive anything.”

The Herald singles out current U.S. Rep. Barney Frank and a handful of others:

Other power brokers who worked in White’s administration include: Boston Redevelopment Authority director Peter Meade, who was White’s parks commissioner; public relations mogul George Regan, who served as White’s communications director; Ira Jackson, a former chief of staff, who went on to become a top cabinet member under former Gov. Michael Dukakis, as well as head of Arizona State University and Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government; Big Dig architect Fred Salvucci, who got his start as White’s transportation adviser; and Micho Spring, a former White chief of staff, who is New England president of PR powerhouse Weber Shandwick.

Today’s Boston Globe mines the same vein, but comes up with slightly different results, substituting Boston Foundation president Paul Grogan (who the photo gallery identifies as “Peter”) and former City Council president Bruce Bolling for Ira Jackson.

Plenty of scorpions to go around, eh?

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Sponsors To Donald Trump: You’re Hired!

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice is to product integration what plaid is to Bermuda shorts.

From MediaPost:

New Sponsors Join ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ For 12th Season

One of the original big-ticket branded entertainment-connected TV shows, “Celebrity Apprentice” has announced a new slate of in-show sponsors: food company Kraft, drug retailer, Walgreens and confectionary brand M&Ms.

NBC has also announced some of last season’s — General Motors, Good Sam, and Farouk Hair Systems —  will be making a return for the show. Now in its 12th edition, it premieres on Sunday, Feb. 19. Other season sponsors this year include Entertainment.com, Ivanka Trump Collection, O-Cedar and Five Star Fragrance.

That’s more tie-ins than a Martha’s Vineyard marina.

But business as usual for Mr. Trump.

Originally posted on the New! Improveder! Sneak ADtack!

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That’s Just So Sad! (Rafa Can’t Beat This Guy Edition)

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

The hardworking staff loves Rafael Nadal, a tennis player who’s classy, humble, and supremely talented.

But he’s clearly met his match in Noval Djokovic, a tennis player who’s admirable in his efforts to rehabilitate Serbia’s international image, and even more supremely talented.

Yesterday’s Australian Open men’s singles final was Nadal’s finest effort against Djokovic,  but he still came up short – for the seventh time in seven straight finals.

(You can read the gory details here and especially here.)

Here’s hoping for a Nadal-Djokovic final in the French Open four months from now. Maybe – maybe – Rafa can get the Novak off his back there.

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Let The $4 Billion Rumpus Begin! (Daily Beast Edition)

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Campaign Outsider

Smart Daily Beast piece by New York ad gal Judith Grey rounding up the GOP presidential primary ads in Florida.

Representative excerpts:

Mitt Romney is enduring attack ads—accurate and otherwise –by the Gingrich campaign and the pro-Gingrich super PAC Winning Our Future; he is also the target of a six-figure radio offensive launched by Priorities USA, the super PAC supporting Obama, the Service Employees International Union, and a television spot produced by another liberal group AFSCME, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

* * * * * * *

Between the commercials produced by the Romney campaign and those aired by his super PAC, Romney—not necessarily by design—has evolved a three-pronged approach to winning the state and improving his chances in November. Prong one, aggrandize Mitt. Prong two, attack Newt. And three, attribute every woe this country has been feeling lately to Barack Obama.

* * * * * * *

The anti-Newt ads, “Unreliable Leader” and “Undisciplined” are equally as powerful. Former Gingrich colleagues from the House of Representatives provide stone-faced testimonies about his precarious record while unflattering shots of the former speaker are intercut throughout. Simple yet convincing, these ads are sure to have an impact.

In contrast, the anti-Romney commercials being aired by the Gingrich campaign are far more complicated, gimmicky, and petty. And, as such, they are bound to be less potent.

Read the whole piece. It’s very good.

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