McCain versus Romney and Broadcast TV

by: Matt Stoller

Wed Jan 30, 2008 at 05:48


McCain.jpg

It's interesting that McCain was vastly outspent on TV by Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, and yet is on the cusp of the nomination.

I have a new piece in the Nation on new organizing models that have emerged since 2004.  It takes the angle of looking at the technology of field, but the larger story is that we are seeing the first significant change to the architecture of politics since direct mail in the 1970s.  There are an interrelated series of improved technologies, activist networks, new institutions, and better talent that has rejuvenated progressive politics.  But a lot of what is happening is that broadcast TV is dying; senior field people kept telling me that the focus of politics is moving to targeted word of mouth communication and away from 30 second ads.

This shift is hitting a good deal more than Presidential campaigns or even political campaigns in general, it is tapping into all of politics, including issue fights and legislation.  So it's interesting to see Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani getting torched in a fight even though they are the broadcast TV champs.

Matt Stoller :: McCain versus Romney and Broadcast TV

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Really interesting. (0.00 / 0)
Great piece.

Awesome article (0.00 / 0)
As an old field hand who has been battling for resources in broadcast media heavy campaigns for 20 years, I feel like I am seeing the world I always hoped to build.

One of the outfits I work for is sending me to a New Organizing Institute training next week and I expect to enjoy it.

Can it happen here?


Great Article Matt! (0.00 / 0)
I've seen the word of mouth campaign working for Obama here in Northern California.  Also, as someone who flew out on his own dime to Iowa and Wisconsin to campaign for Kerry in 2004 (he already had California in the bag) I remember walking precincts and knocking on doors and finding half the time that "so-and-so no longer lives here", or finding that this was the fifth time someone had come by.  Lots of wasted time and energy. 

Broadcast TV As Niche (0.00 / 0)
I think that arguably the smartest use of broadcast tv is not as a major item at all, but rather as a niche expenditure.

The epitome of the model I have in mind is the LBJ Daisy Girld Ad, or Apple's 1984/Big Brother Ad--one-time ads so powerful and resonant that people remember them decades later.

You do your hard work in a wide range of ways, create a certin level of awareness, a certin buzz, and then you pop with a well-placed one-time TV that feeds off all that, and takes it up another level, but only after the ground's been prepared for it.

This completely reverses the old order of things.  It doesn't dismiss broadcast TV entirely, but it definitely subordinates it.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3


Broadcast (0.00 / 0)
But broadcast TV certainly involves more than buying ad time. And McCain, more than Romney or even Giuliani (except with Fox) is the champion of receiving fawning, complimentary free broadcast tv on the Sunday shows, for example. Enough so that my mother, a McGovern Democrat, committed liberal, without a computer, dedicated Sunday show viewer, thinks McCain is pretty good. (Drives me crazy!)

disagree here (0.00 / 0)
I was just thinking of writing a piece on how the TV media, talking heads are the ones crowning the winner.

To me, McCain doesn't get challenged at all, is a media darling and Romney has been painted as this evil rich dude.

They are both evil dudes and Romney said something very interesting about his buying the Presidency that I had to pause on, which is because he's buying his own Presidency that means he doesn't have massive global corporations buying it for him and doesn't have to answer them those very large corporate interests and agendas.

I mean don't get me wrong, a private equity raider, VC, hedge fund super rich guy, if he turns and created policy in the national interest I would stand there with my mouth open in shock but most assuredly McCain is the real corporate puppet here.

Well, the truth of it is, McCain is more a corporate puppet on trade, economics policy than Romney is if you can believe that
and I see all sorts of negatives on the talking heads and just not much real press coverage on Romney.

He maybe buying the airwaves in ad spots but in terms of the real news, main stream media, they are the ones crowning McCain. 

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