• by John Gaffney , November 6, 2002

OPRs for the week of Nov. 4:

Call Programming. I Have A Great Idea: According to TV Guide, Rosie O'Donnell says that if she still had her talk show, she would use it as a forum to defend Martha Stewart. "I'd be singing Martha Stewart a love song every day. I want every housewife in America to band together and refuse to let them tear down one of the most successful female entrepreneurs in our country's history," she says.

And Your Pretty Little Dog, Too: Vanity Fair contributing editor Judith Newman wrote that a "shouting and spitting" O'Donnell denied in an interview with her that she was being abusive with the Rosie staffers, and justified her angry outbursts as necessary for her art. "Of course I'm angry," O'Donnell told Newman. "Rage is the foundation of comedy." "Rosie" staff and editors told Vanity Fair that O'Donnell was prone to child-like tantrums that could be frightening and humiliating for the targets of her rage.

And Johnny Carson Gets To Sue Everybody On TV: CBS, which airs "Survivor," claims ABC is tying to mimic its success with "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me out of Here!" and has sued to stop the show's February broadcast in the U.S. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, contends "Celebrity,' which was broadcast in England in August, directly copies the "format, look and feel" of "Survivor." The "Celebrity" series was set in the Australian Outback and featured eight minor celebrities, including a former radio DJ, a psychic, a socialite and the wife of a former member of Parliament. The "Celebrity" participants were forced to subsist on rice and water, compete in a series of physical and mental challenges, and vote one of their colleagues off at the end of each episode - just like on "Survivor," the suit contends.

Hide The Cats: A London-based company says it plans to recruit a number of dogs to carry "dogverts." THQ has already tested the idea on golden labrador Fido who carried an ad for the PlayStation II game, Red Faction II. Fido was living at the Mayhew Animal Shelter in London after being rescued in Wales. The Sunday Express says he was painted with a red vegetable dye and logo for his walk in Roundwood Park to advertise the game. Richard Williams, senior marketing manager with the company said: "To qualify, dogs need to have short, pale hair to accentuate any advertisements, must be healthy and walked at least twice a day. We only use vegetable dyes to ensure we do not harm any animals."

Reader Riff Of The Week: My riff about the lame negative qualities of political ads hit some hot buttons. Among them, reader Bill Clary: “I am not a politician, but I have some experience inpolitical campaigns, as a volunteer, as a staff person, and as a vendor. I would suggest that political advertising does what it is supposed to do--to keep people from voting for the sponsoring candidate's opponent.

The political marketplace is quite different from those which most advertising people are familiar with, thus the strategies and tactics are quite different. If McDonald's and Burger King attack each other, driving up each other's "negative perception", as the pollsters call it, neither will benefit. Consumers are able to make other choices, and spend the money elsewhere. However, an American election is a zero sum game with only two competitors. Even if people are "turned off" by the negative advertising, one of the two candidates will still win, and reap all the rewards, while the other will lose and get nothing.

In my opinion, the reasons behind negative campaigns are these:
1. Most Americans are more willing to believe the worst about politicians than the best, which makes it easier to convince voters that your opponent is a scumbag than to convince them that you are a paragon.
2. Unlike consumer advertising, the "marketing window" is short, constrained by low attention spans, disinterest, and the calendar itself. There is very little time to build "brand image", unless you are smart like former President Clinton. He started his re-election campaign advertising in 1995, allowing himself to get control of the brand images before he even had an opponent.
3. The amount of money spent on political advertising, although large compared to that spent in other industrialized countries, is probably not enough to do effective brand building, given the other constraints.

Unfortunately, since both sides usually go down that route, it becomes like an arms race...each side has to keep "piling it on", to see which candidate is left standing. It is a truly distasteful situation. Most politicians hate the way our campaigns run, but they are also quite Machiavellian, and will do essentially whatever they have to in order to win.