Posted on July 22, 2008 by Jon Austin
Just when you think we’ve plumbed the depths, we sail off another shelf into deeper waters…
According to today’s New York Times, there’s a growing trend of product placement on morning news shows at local television stations. The report leads with the Las Vegas Fox affiliate that places McDonald’s breakfast drinks in front of its anchors [...]
Filed under: Communications, Journalism, Marketing, Media, PR | Tagged: advertising, McDonalds, Media, New York Times, product placement | 3 Comments »
Posted on July 20, 2008 by Jon Austin
Faithful readers will recall that back at the end of May, I posted my first cut of how the general election contest was shaping up looked. Back then, I posted a short list of states that were in play:
Colorado 9 votes
Florida [...]
Filed under: Politics | Tagged: Barak Obama, electoral politics, John McCain | 10 Comments »
Posted on July 15, 2008 by Jon Austin
Yes, it’s more than a song by T-Rex last heard in a Suburu commercial, it also apparently describes presumptive GOP nominee John McCain’s grasp of and involvement with our digital age:
Q: What websites if any do you look at regularly?
Mr. McCain: Brooke and Mark show me Drudge, obviously, everybody watches, for better or for worse, [...]
Filed under: Communications, Politics | Tagged: blogging, Drudge Report, Internet, John McCain, New York Times, Phil Gramm, Politico, RealPolitics | 3 Comments »
Posted on July 2, 2008 by Jon Austin
If you’ve noticed a certain similarity in the ads and campaign appearances of John McCain, you’re right…and I mean that literally. Every McCain image in every ad, every camera angle at every campaign photo op between now and election day will show Senator McCain’s right side.
The reason can be seen in this relatively rare photo [...]
Filed under: Politics | Tagged: John McCain | 5 Comments »
Posted on June 26, 2008 by Jon Austin
Quinnipiac, along with the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, has today released head-to-head survey results from four battleground states:
COLORADO: Obama 49 - McCain 44
MICHIGAN: Obama 48 - McCain 42
MINNESOTA: Obama 54 - McCain 37
WISCONSIN: Obama 52 - McCain 39
Interestingly, but not surprisingly, President Bush’s approve/disapprove ratings in those states are abysmal:
31 [...]
Filed under: Politics | Tagged: Tim Pawlenty, John McCain, Minnesota, Barack Obama, Norm Coleman, Al Franken, George Bush, Colorado, Michigan, Wisconsin, Quinnipiac | 2 Comments »
Posted on June 25, 2008 by Jon Austin
Trying to sort signal from noise is tough in any business but particularly so in the hothouse world of presidential politics. In that context, are the following indicators or just static:
- Gordon Smith, incumbent Republican Senator from Oregon, is running ads featuring an implicit endorsement from Barack Obama.
- Team Obama says they expect to [...]
Filed under: Politics | Tagged: Barack Obama, consumer confidence, electoral politics, fundraising, Gordon Smith, John McCain | 8 Comments »
Posted on June 20, 2008 by Jon Austin
On Thursday afternoon over the lunch hour two young women were observed on Nicollet Mall passing out small cellophane packages, each stickered with this blog’s address and containing a blue silicone bracelet embossed with “Think Blue - 11/04/08.” In the course of about 15 minutes the two passed out more than 200 bracelets and [...]
Filed under: Communications, Fun, Overhead, Politics, Public relations | Tagged: bracelet, democrats, interns, Reublicans, Think Blue | 4 Comments »
Posted on June 8, 2008 by Jon Austin
Whatever magic Al Franken unleashed this morning in Rochester to secure the DFL endorsement with 62 percent of the votes ought to be vacuumed up off the floor of the Mayo Civic Center and bottled for the fall. According to MinnPost’s Doug Grow, today’s Al was sincere, articulate, persuasive and effective, qualities not much seen [...]
Filed under: Communications, Politics | Tagged: MinnPost, DFL, Norm Coleman, Al Franken, Rochester, Mayo Civic Center, Doug Grow | 1 Comment »
Posted on June 1, 2008 by Jon Austin
I don’t know how accurate it is (though it seems exhaustively reported) but Todd Purdum’s profile of the post-presidential Bill Clinton in the July Vanity Fair is an entertaining and thought-provoking read. It examines the - among many issues - the question of why President Clinton - who is one of the best political [...]
Filed under: Media, Politics | Tagged: Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Todd Purdum, Vanity Fair | 2 Comments »
Posted on May 30, 2008 by Jon Austin
Whew, we’ve had a busy couple weeks here at the Crowd. Lots of good posts and some even better comments. Thank you one and all for making the SRC worth visiting - as it turns out Voltaire didn’t say, “Some of you are whacked but I’m totally behind your right to say any crazy thing [...]
Filed under: Free speech, Politics | Tagged: Free speech, Politics | 16 Comments »