Starting today, Twitter is selling ads to candidates and political action committees who will be able to have their tweets appear as Promoted Tweets, designated by a purple check mark. According to USA Today, GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is advertising on Twitter, as well as the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) and three others. Adam Bain, Twitter's president of global revenue, said …
Herman Cain’s Bizarro Faux Western Movie Ad
From the opening horse sequence, I was hoping for a spoof of "Blazing Saddles," but this ad for GOP Presidential Candidate Herman Cain is just bizarre. We get a Western sequence, then the Nick Searcy, the main actor, breaks character and talks to the camera to make an endorsement of Cain. It's a long way to go to get to the main point of the ad, which is that Cain is "real" and doesn't use empty phrases the …
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Dairyland Goes Negative In A Big Way
Unless you're a big follower of politics, and you don't live in Wisconsin, you've probably missed the recent elections designed to recall several state legislature members. In a pretty bold statement, Craig Gilbert of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel calls the recall campaign "as negative as it gets." Why was this campaign so “negative?” [Political advertising scholar Ken] Goldstein offers several reasons. …
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Citizens for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow Is The Real Deal
Stephen Colbert is a culture jammer. By day he lampoons conservative talk show hosts by pretending to be one, by night he runs a Super PAC, spending real, not funny, money in the Republican race for U.S. President. According to The New York Times, Colbert applied for status as a Super PAC with the Federal Elections Commission and was approved in June. “This is 100 percent legal and at least 10 percent ethical,” he …
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We The People Do Not Well Know Our History, But Rachel Maddow Does
Rachel Maddow is the American history teacher that so many Americans never had. Which is too bad, because broad knowledge of American history is absolutely critical to the nation's future. At any rate, Maddow carries the torch for MSNBC in these national infrastructure ads, which are almost a form of public service advertising. On last night's program, Maddow outlined how the current fear of public …
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Political Ads Go Interactive
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: If you really want to follow the money in advertising, you have to do it with political advertising and issue advocacy advertising. Headed into 2012, we're going to be flooded with it. And it's getting more sophisticated. SocialVibe, based in California, is rolling out PoliticalVibe, which provides interactive ads for candidates that look like the sample screenshot …
Let’s See Newt Gingrich Get Women To Strip For Him The Way Vladimir Putin Can
It's a new twist in Presidential ads. Using a little T&A might just help Vladimir Putin win re-election in Russia: So what's the story? Wired has the details: In the video, a young lady named Diana sings Vlad’s praises, saying “I’m crazy about a person who changed the life of our country. He’s a capable politician,” according to a GlobalPost translation. With plump lips, dewey eyes and lots of cleavage, she …
There’s Power And Then There’s The Power Of Image Advertising
Jon Huntsman is the other Mormon for President, the one from Utah. But he's about to transcend that early label and find some better fitting ones like "the good looking guy" for President, or "the youthful family man" for President. According to The Wall Street Journal, Huntsman is trying something different in GOP politics: a campaign based almost entirely on atmospherics. The campaign from Hollywood-based …
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