Why is the Bush Campaign the one coming up with creative promotion tactics

[DaveofCali]

Im getting tired of hearing the Bush Campaign as the only one that is coming up with all of the creative, non conventional promotion tactics (ones like the "I'm ....and I approve this message"). Seriously, if Kerry would actually get pros from Madison Avenue, Bush would have NO chance of winning another 4 years.

Here is just the latest promotion tactic by the Bush Campaign:





Report on six-mile backup, fender bender - sponsored by Bush-Cheney
STEVE LeBLANC, Associated Press Writer

Wednesday, October 20, 2004
BOSTON (AP) --

This three-car pile up brought to you by ... George Bush.

Drivers in battleground states are hearing live radio traffic reports sponsored by the Bush-Cheney campaign, apparently the first presidential ticket to adopt an approach typically favored by car dealerships.

The ads are bracketed around regular traffic reports. An announcer reads "this traffic report is paid for by Bush-Cheney '04" and then launches into the traffic update.

At the end of the report, the announcer reads a brief campaign message: "John Kerry recently called terrorism a nuisance -- like gambling and prostitution -- prompting foreign policy experts to question if Kerry understands the war on terror. President Bush approved this message."

The Bush campaign said the goal is to link the president's message to one of the most-listened-to features on Drive Time radio.

"It's a new way to reach out to voters and spread the president's message," said Kevin Madden, a Bush campaign spokesman. "To our knowledge this is the first time a presidential candidate has advertised through traffic reports."

The campaign is sponsoring reports on radio stations in Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Although one of the ads is playing on a Boston station, Massachusetts drivers, who have endured a decade of Big Dig traffic tie ups, aren't the main target. Nearby voters in the battleground state of New Hampshire are.

Republicans long ago gave up any hope of capturing Massachusetts, home of Democratic nominee John Kerry.

And the Kerry-Edwards campaign is skeptical that sponsoring traffic reports is the way to go to reach out to voters.

"We question the wisdom of Bush, who has presided over dramatically escalating gasoline prices, choosing to remind people as they sit in traffic, burning up fuel and their household budget along with it," said Justine Griffin, a Kerry campaign spokeswoman.

But political analysts said the idea is a good move for decent exposure to a captive audience.

"It's a damned smart media buy. If you had to decide what radio programming people pay attention to, it's traffic on the threes," said Boston University political analyst Tobe Berkovitz, referring to traffic reports repeated every third minute. "No one uses traffic on the threes for background music."

The traffic reports are marketed by Metro Networks Communications Inc., a subsidiary of Westwood One Inc., which provide live news, sports and weather reports to more than 2,000 radio stations nationwide.

Earlier this year, Metro Networks won the approval of the Federal Election Commission to market their traffic reports to candidates for federal office.

The company had to get an exception from the rule that a candidate must be heard in the ad saying that he or she approved it. Due to the live nature of the reports, the FEC allowed the Metro Networks reporter to read the sponsorship message rather than requiring it to be in the candidate's voice.

[Norquist Nemesis]

1. Just a few more days...

they'll have wasted so much money and those Pioneers and Rangers will know they've gambled and thrown their money away. The upside is that the money will start pouring into the Democrats!

Well, I can dream any way.

[snowbear]

2. Not creative...

Martha Stewart is creative.

They are SINISTER.

[Warren DeMontague]

3. Sensible. The Bush Administration, itself is sort of like

a six mile backup caused by a massive car accident.

[freeplessinseattle]

4. well, for one thing the "and I approved this message"

thing is now the law for all political ads, including local, and in fact I have my own on my voice mail "You've reached your local Kerry supporter and I approved this message. Please leave your own message and I will get back to you as soon as I approve it."

I think we've had some pretty damn creative and effective ideas here, and truth be told I can't say that I am totally convinced that the * campaign even paid for that ad or if maybe that station is blatantly partisan. I guess we could also say that Sinclair's tactic is "creative" too, under a narrow definition of the term.