Check out this Washington Post article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46233-2004Oct19.htmlSome Kerry Spots Never Make the Air
Ads Are Produced to Spur News Articles
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 20, 2004; Page A06
John F. Kerry's strategists pride themselves on the sheer speed of their advertising effort as they churn out one response after another to President Bush's attack spots.
Now it turns out that some of the Kerry commercials are being written, edited, produced and put on satellites for the purpose of generating news articles. They have not actually aired on any network or local station -- except in reports about the Democrat's campaign.
<snip>
Two of the Kerry ads released last weekend -- one attacking the Bush administration's handling of flu vaccine, the other accusing the president of a plan to slash Social Security benefits -- have not aired.
<snip>
The Kerry campaign has also made small ad buys to draw headlines. On Sept. 25, the Kerry camp released a commercial -- in response to an anti-Kerry ad on terrorism by the independent Progress for America -- that accused Bush of "despicable" and "un-American" politics. It aired only on a Washington cable station.
On Oct. 11, the campaign put out an ad that said: "After nearly four years under George Bush, the middle class is paying the bigger share of America's tax burden and the wealthiest are paying less." A Kerry spokesman said it began airing only yesterday, in Minnesota. An ad about Vice President Cheney and Halliburton has run only five times, in Oregon and Harrisburg, Pa.
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Is this a good idea? I can see the strategy, but some of those were good ads. Wouldn't it be worth actually USING some of them? The flu shot one has excellent potential (even if it's a *BIT* intellectually dishonest - but we're not going to beat the Repubs at their game playing with kid gloves).