Social Media DOESN’T make sense for politicians!

Many years ago, a mentor who’s long since shuffled off this mortal coil, used to tell our ad agency clients (and anybody else within earshot): “Just because you produce an ad doesn’t mean you’re advertising.”

He’d then go on the say that the velox (remember those?) of the newspaper ad hanging on the boss’s bulletin board was great as a common reminder that the client had made an ad.  Client could look at it 9-5 every day, chuckle over its creativity, touch it, hug it, call up his friends and talk about it.

Then at the end of the month, he’d wonder why that velox didn’t improve his sales.

Same could be said for the award-winning direct mailer that generated less than a half percent response. Or the hard-hitting political TV response ad that aired at 3am on the Cartoon Network.  Or the Telly or Polly Awards won for a losing campaign. Those of us who have been in and around the political communications world for awhile can cite dozens of personal experiences where lessons like these were learned at unacceptably high prices.

In 2008, it was how Barack Obama won that ensured he did.

Happy Mother’s ….. Day!

Doesn’t it always seem that one head scratcher begets another and another and so on and so on, ad Breck Shampooeum? (Come on! You old timers will remember that wonderful split screen spot from the 60s…)

Mother’s Day 2009 was one of those days.

I awoke to a painfully strident interview on CBS with (THANKFULLY) former VP Dick Cheney defending torture and bashing the current administration for making Americans more vulnerable to terror. Cheney spoke as if he honestly believed the Bush administration was within its rights to invade, usurp, torture and terrorize not only the people of the Middle East but also those of our entire planet. One look at his face and his tone, however, reminded us that this is a man who is incapable of sincerity… probably pathologically.

CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH THE INTERVIEW

Former President Bush (the lesser) has been well advised to keep his mouth shut since leaving the White House.  Cheney, however, seemed rather irrigated that he was no longer pulling the world’s strings.  When the word “Limbaugh” came out of his mouth, it was time to shut it down.