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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHHS ad blitz sputters as celebrities back away
They made a list of more than 30 celebrities including Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift and Billy Joel to appear in their ad campaign to "inspire hope" about coronavirus, but they ended up with only Dennis Quaid, CeCe Winans and Hasidic singer Shulem Lemmer.
The health departments $300 million-plus, taxpayer-funded vehicle to boost confidence in President Donald Trumps response to the pandemic is sputtering. Celebrities are refusing to participate, and staff are arraying against it. Some complain of the unstated aim of helping Trumps re-election. Others point to an ill-prepared video team and a 22-year-old political appointee who has repeatedly asserted control despite having no public health expertise, according to six people with close knowledge of the campaign and documents related to its operations.
Interviews with participants and others in the Health and Human Services Department paint a picture of a chaotic effort, scrambling to meet an unofficial Election Day deadline, floundering in the wake of the medical leave of its architect, Michael Caputo, and running up against increasing resistance among career staff.
"This is a boondoggle," said an HHS official who requested anonymity to discuss a sensitive department project. "We're in the middle of a pandemic
we could use that quarter of a billion dollars on buying PPE [personal protective equipment], not promoting PSAs with C-list celebrities."
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/29/hhs-ad-blitz-sputters-as-celebrities-back-away-423274
dchill
(38,591 posts)It is what it is.
The Genealogist
(4,723 posts)And now the taxpayers are forking over the money for them.
soothsayer
(38,601 posts)Nevilledog
(51,259 posts)Ligyron
(7,644 posts)Maybe its a mistake, IDK if hes a Trump licker or not? Doesnt seem like the type but...
But 4 sure shame on those other 2!
Whoever they are.
Response to RandySF (Original post)
Ligyron This message was self-deleted by its author.
BigmanPigman
(51,648 posts)That medical leave came just in time. I wonder if his cancer has him feeling any empathy for those who are in the hospital with Covid. Does he have any regrets? Hell no! He would do it again in a nanosecond.