The New York Times is busting out dairy industry advocacy group, American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology, or Afact. The paper says Afact likes to present itself as a grassroots organization of dairy farmers, when it's actually a lobbying effort backed by Monsanto and their St. Louis-based ad agency, Osborn & Barr. The battle is over Posilac, the brand name of a Monsanto synthetic hormone …
The Marketing of Hope vs. The Marketing of Fear: A Modern Day Political Drama
Mike Smock has some strong opinions about the Obama campaign. Since the Ohio and Texas returns are coming in, this seems a good time to explore Smock's thinking. It's interesting to see many in the marketing, advertising and creative communities lining up to support Barack Obama's version of "hope". Interesting because these are many of the same folks who peddle 'hope" in the form of predatory loans to low income …
Roy Spence Loves The Red Phone Of Fear
Back in 1984, GSD&M's Roy Spence was working for Walter Mondale's campaign and created this spot for Texas: Now, Spence is back working for Hillary Clinton. The ominous phone is back, too: Apparently, he hasn't had many new thoughts while walking across America. To paraphrase GSD&M's work for Southwest, Spence is now free to scare the shit out of the country. UPDATE: And in a matter of hours (something few consumer …
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Obamarketing
From a purely marketing standpoint, Barack Obama has created the most sophisticated marketing campaign I've ever seen. I think there are some lessons advertising agencies can learn from this. It's the subject of my new column on Talent Zoo, which you can read right here: Putting policies and positions aside for this discussion, Barack Obama has created the most sophisticated marketing program I’ve ever seen. Decades …
Axelrod Is On Message
AKP&D Message and Media is one of the most influential "brand strategy" firms in Chicago, and the nation. One of the firm's partners, David Axelrod-- described as Obama's answer to Karl Rove and the most powerful political consultant not on a coast--heads up Obama's campaign for President. According to the LA Times: The burly 52-year-old with the drooping mustache oversees ad creation and coordinates with the …
Barack Obama Is Your New Bicycle Dot Com
Click the message above for more consumer-generated political advertising with a sense of humor. …
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David Esrati Will Not Stay Quiet
Running for office in Ohio's 3rd Congressional Distict, ad agency owner David Esrati is trying to get the word out about his campaign. He's running against the Republican incumbent Mike Turner, who used to be the mayor of Dayton. And that's what makes the spot below so interesting: When Mike Turner was Mayor, he had me arrested for a silent symbolic protest. We went to court, not once, or twice, but five times. We …
Finding The Right Hook For A Political Ad
Steve Novick is a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Oregon. He was also born without a left arm. That doesn't seem to stop him much: Nice. …
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