• by March 4, 2004

HE NEVER PROMISED US A ROSE GARDEN, BUT 9/11? - We're of mixed emotions concerning today's launch of George W. Bush's multimillion dollar advertising campaign. On the one hand, it's great to see the Prez doing his part to boost the advertising economy with an estimated $60 million media budget over the next seven months. On the other hand, we have to question the strategy of his initial flight. And it's not that we buy the notion that W's campaign team is exploiting an American tragedy in the TV spots breaking today. It's that it seems to run contra to good political - or for that matter, any brand's - advertising practices.

It's a basic tenant that you should avoid associating your brand with implicitly negative imagery, even if the overt message is, "Hey, I'm the guy who's taking control of this situation." But that's exactly what Bush's campaign team has chosen to do by juxtaposing the President with images of the smoldering remnants of the World Trade Center following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Again, we think the footage is fair game, even if Democratic spinmeisters (hey, it's their job) and New York firefighters (hey, it's their right) are up in arms over it. We only question why Bush would want to remind the American public of their insecurities, especially when he is the guy in charge.

Tony Schwartz, long-regarded as the dean of political media ads - for that matter, ads of all kinds - wrote the book on this some time ago. If you're going to evoke something that triggers deep-rooted thoughts of insecurity, you want to associate those thoughts with your opponent, not yourself. Indeed, it was just that strategy that Schwartz used in his legendary "daisy" spot to reelect Lyndon Johnson in 1964. But in that spot, which depicted an image of an innocent child holding a daisy juxtaposed against the mushroom cloud of a nuclear bomb, there was no imagery of Johnson, only an allusion to his hawkish opponent Barry Goldwater.

As Schwartz once explained to the Riff a long, long time ago - so long ago that W's dad was running for Vice President on a ticket with Ronald Reagan - the key to effective political ad messages is to associate your candidate with themes that reinforce an ease of mind, while running ads that associate your adversary with thoughts of insecurity.

We're not sure if Bush actually reads the Riff -- we're told he doesn't read much news at all - but here, for his benefit, we're reproducing the script of the "daisy" spot.

Tony Schwartz's "Daisy" Spot

Image of little girl picking petals of a daisy, counting in her innocent  voice:   "One, two, three, four, five,
seven, six, eight, nine."   As she reaches "ten," a  resounding male voice suddenly reverses the  count:   "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one."   At zero comes a deafening
roar, and the screen fills with the mushroom cloud of an atomic bomb.   Then the voice of Lyndon Johnson:   "These are the stakes - to make a world in which all God's children can live, or to go into
the darkness. We must either love each other, or we must  die."    A reassuring male voice concludes:    "Vote for President Johnson on November 3. The stakes are too high for  you to stay home."

AND THE VERDICT IS - King World's nationally syndicated "Martha Stewart Living" TV show has been nominated for six Daytime Emmy Awards. And if the show's host somehow manages to beat her insider trading rap, she should be nominated for an Academy Award. If she doesn't, she may have to miss the 31st Annual Daytime Emmy Awards, which will be held May 21 at Radio City Music Hall.

DID YOU SAY TIVO, OR WAS THAT JUST THE OLD HEAVE-HO? - Raffles are obligatory features of media planner schmooze fests and while it is not uncommon for the media hosts to dispense of electronic gadgetry, we have to question the "prize" Television Week doled out to a lucky planner who won the drawing at the end of its Media Planning conference in New York Tuesday. The winner was MindShare's Pat Roberto. His prize: a TiVo digital video recording system, the very same device some feel may challenge the very same profession of media planning. At least Roberto will get some first-hand insights into how DVRs affect TV viewing behavior.