Commentary
Real Media Riffs - Monday, Nov 1, 2004
- by November 1, 2004
And it's decidedly in favor of challenger John Kerry, not incumbent George W. Bush. At last count, 175 major dailies with circulation totaling 18.8 million had endorsed Kerry versus 138 dailies with circulation totaling 12.1 million endorsing Bush.
That, according to Editor & Publisher magazine, which has been compiling the data, gives Kerry a "208 to 169" lead in media endorsements. What makes the tally especially interesting, is that E&P's election year surveys in recent decades have all concluded by giving an overall edge to the Republican candidate for president, except in one of Bill Clinton's races.
Of course, most other major media - especially the electronic kind - don't normally declare their political endorsements. These days, TV outlets would prefer to spin the elections with their public affairs news programming, or giving free ad time to the candidates of their choice.
In a break from our long-standing policy of remaining politically neutral, the Riff would like to use today's column to issue our endorsement. But it's neither Kerry, nor Bush that we are hankering to see in the Oval Office. Heck, it's not even irascible third-party candidate Ralph Nader that's on our ticket.
If you want to know who could really lead this nation in a way that befits the ad industry, it's actually someone who's already in the business, and who's already a president: The American Association of Advertising Agencies' chief O., Burtch Drake. At least, that's who the greatest percentage of media planners and buyers told the Riff - courtesy of online researcher InsightExpress - had the qualities they'd most like to see in a U.S. president.
Who else would they put on Madison Avenue's dream team? That'd be another industry president, Interactive Advertising Bureau chief Greg Stuart, who drew 9.4 percent of the MediaPost panel votes. Sure, we know what you're thinking. MediaPost, surely those guys are media partisan, if not politically partisan. Think again.
While Stuart did draw more support from online media planners and buyers, he actually drew 8 percent of the vote among traditional planners and buyers, as well, putting him in a comfortable position to be Drake's sidekick on Madison Avenue's ticket.
After front-runners Drake and Stuart, there's a three-way tie between Bob Liodice (Association of National Advertisers), Sean Cunningham (Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau), and John Greco (Direct Marketing Association).
Greco's stature is interesting given that he only recently took over at the DMA after running the Yellow Pages industry association.
Meanwhile, the CAB's Cunningham just barely squeezes out broadcast TV rival, Chris Rohrs, the Television Bureau of Advertising chief who took 5 percent of the vote.
Which trade chief has the qualities you'd most like to see in a U.S. commander and chief?
| Burtch Drake (AAAA) | 13.4% | |
| Greg Stuart (IAB) | 9.4% | |
| Bob Liodice (ANA) | 5.4% | |
| Sean Cunningham (CAB) | 5.4% | |
| John Greco (DMA) | 5.4% | |
| Chris Rohrs (TVB) | 5.0% | |
| Wally Snyder (AAF) | 4.5% | |
| Nancy Fletcher (OAAA) | 4.0% | |
| Gary Fries (RAB) | 3.5% | |
| Nina Link (MPA) | 3.5% | |
| Bob Barocci (ARF) | 2.0% | |
| Neg Norton (YPA) | 1.5% | |
| John Sturm (NAA) | 1.0% | |
| None | 51.0% |
Trade chiefs aside, some corporate media leaders - especially the digital media kind - drew even more support. With 27.2 percent of the vote, Microsoft's Bill Gates wields the greatest presidential stature among media planners and buyers, followed by Google's Eric Schmidt, who commanded 15.8 percent of the popular vote.
Humanitarian, bison benefactor, and former media titan Ted Turner ranked third with 12.4 percent of the vote, though he actually tied with Google's Schmidt for second place among traditional media executives.
Two other digital media honchos - Yahoo!'s Terry Semel and Charter Communication's Paul Allen - rounded out the top tier of candidates, proving that while one former presidential candidate has been credited with inventing the Internet, some potential ones may have actually done so, or at least contributed to it.
In a three-way tie for fifth place with Rupert Murdoch and Bob Wright, namesake agency chief and talk show host Donny Deutsch was the highest ranking ad agency exec in the poll. The highest ranking media agency chief was Group M's Irwin Gotlieb, who tied with felon Martha Stewart, with 4.5 percent of the vote.
Soon-to-be-reporting to Gotlieb, MediaCom's Jon Mandel tied with Carat's David Verklin with 4 percent of the vote, but OMD's Joe Uva and Starcom MediaVest Group's Jack Klues fell more into Nader, than Bush or Kerry territory.
Another interesting ranking was Viacom's Leslie Moonves, who attracted 6.9 percent of Madison Avenue's vote, more than current boss Sumner Redstone, and a lot more than Tom Freston, his co-COO and erstwhile rival at Viacom.
Which corporate chief has the qualities you'd most like to see in a U.S. commander and chief?
| Bill Gates (Microsoft) | 27.2% | |
| Eric Schmidt (Google) | 15.8% | |
| Ted Turner | 12.4% | |
| Terry Semel (Yahoo!) | 10.4% | |
| Paul Allen (Charter) | 10.4% | |
| Donny Deutsch (Deutsch) | 7.4% | |
| Rupert Murdoch (News Corp.) | 7.4% | |
| Bob Wright (NBC Universal) | 7.4% | |
| Leslie Moonves (Viacom) | 6.9% | |
| Richard Parsons (Time Warner) | 5.4% | |
| Brian Roberts (Comcast) | 5.0% | |
| Martha Stewart (Omnimedia) | 4.5% | |
| Irwin Gotlieb (Group M) | 4.5% | |
| Jon Mandel (MediaCom) | 4.0% | |
| David Verklin (Carat) | 4.0% | |
| Sumner Redstone (Viacom) | 3.0% | |
| Tom Freston (Viacom) | 2.5% | |
| William Kerr (Meredith) | 2.5% | |
| Chuck Dolan (Cablevision) | 2.5% | |
| Joe Uva (OMD) | 2.0% | |
| Lowry Mays (Clear Channel) | 2.0% | |
| Jack Klues (SMG) | 1.5% | |
| Michael Eisner (Disney) | 1.5% | |
| David Smith (Sinclair) | 1.0% | |
| Douglas McCorkindale (Gannett) | 0.5% | |
| None | 25.7% |
