Cruel To Be Kind

Social marketing has contributed to huge shifts in American behavior. Thanks to social marketing ads, we litter less, smoke less, drink-and-drive less, smoke in others’ faces less, and wear seat belts more.
Most of these gains have been made by making us very uncomfortable. Does anyone remember the ad with the grandpa who [...]

As If the Debate Weren’t Enough…

The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza notes today that in almost every state, Team Obama is massively outspending Team McCain PLUS the Republican National Committee and in so doing, forcing the McCainites to make tough choices about which battleground states to contest and to spend their finite money defending their own turf.
From Sept. 30 to Oct. [...]

Harry and Louise will support anything for 15 more minutes of fame

I’m not sure how many of you know this, but I’m young. Not like Miley Cyrus young, but young enough that when HillaryCare was first discussed, I was far more interested in Fruit Roll-Ups and baseball cards than I was in “old people” on TV talking about health care coverage.
So when people talk about the [...]

McCain Ad Exposes Cub Scouts’ Sex Ed Agenda

The McCain ad attacking Obama for promoting a bill that allegedly promotes sex education among Kindergarteners would be startling if it weren’t, as Factcheck.org found, “simply false.” There were only a couple of minor problems Factcheck.org discovered with McCain’s claims: 1) it wasn’t Obama’s bill and 2) it didn’t promote sex education.
According to [...]

On Pilin’ On Palin

There are so many message directions Obama could take on the whole Palin front. Troopergate. Experience. Earmark hypocrisy. Family demands. But sacrifice is the essence of strategy, so he should take a pass on all of those tempting messaging paths, so those issues don’t drown out his most compelling message [...]

Lincoln and Douglas or Beevus and Butthead?

The Great Debate of 2008:
Senator McCain: “He’s a celebrity…”

Obama: “Nuh uh, he’s a celebrity.”

- Loveland

Blonde Bombshell

Do you really want to elect the black Britney Spears President? That line never appears in the copy for this ad, but the McCain campaign’s bizarre use of Spears and Paris Hilton images effectively make that the central question the ad poses.

This is an extraordinary ad. I can’t ever [...]

Battle of the Bowlers

Senator Norm Coleman’s bubba bowlers are back, with a bite. This time, Norm has his acting troupe of faux Minnesontans scripted to slash his opponent, Al Franken.

With fresh news today that Franken still is tankin’, rapid response is required. Conventional political wisdom says Al Franken should change the [...]

Product Placement in News Shows; Now There’s a Great Idea!

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 [...]

He Shoots, He…?

- Loveland