Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2002 16:39:58 -0800
From: "D. Paul Stanford" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: ONDCP's Super Bowl Anti-Drug Ads
From: Dale Gieringer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Kevin Zeese observes:
It it interesting to see the first signs of the direction John Walters
will be taking ONDCP and their proaganda efforts.
http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=33931
WHITE HOUSE BUYS ANTI-TERROR SUPER BOWL SPOTS
Biggest Government Ad Buy Ever for a Single Event
January 30, 2002
QwikFIND ID: AAN12D
By Ira Teinowitz
WASHINGTON (AdAge.com) -- The White House anti-drug advertising program
will break two anti-terror ads on the Super Bowl in the biggest single-event
<http://www.adage.com/images/random/whitehouse0130.jpg>
White House spending $1.6 million each for two TV spots.
government advertising buy in U.S. history.
Media buying sources say the White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy will likely pay over $1.6 million per spot. The drug office will get
free matching spots from Fox Broadcasting Co. in other high-profile events.
Outside normal channels
The drug office will use the Super Bowl positioning to break a new
campaign, developed by WPP Group's Ogilvy & Mather, New York. It is the
first major effort created since the start of the drug office advertising
program in 1997 that goes outside the normal channels of the Partnership
for a Drug Free America.
Two 30-second spots produced by award-winning iconoclastic British director
Tony Kaye suggest illegal drug sale profits may help fuel terrorism.
Neither the drug office nor
Ogilvy would discuss the ads, and the drug office also declined to say why
it didn't develop the creative with the Partnership.
<http://www.adage.com/images/random/kaye0130.jpg>
The drug office also declined to comment on why a British director is
producing such a prominent campaign from the American government.
Mr. Kaye is director of commercials and U.S. feature films such as New Line
Studio's American History X. He has occasionally dressed as Osama bin Laden
in appearances in New York comedy clubs.
Attempts to reach Mr. Kaye's agent were unsuccessful.
By law, media companies that want some of the ad buys must provide a free
ad or something of equal value for every paid ad. Lately the drug office
has shrunk the alternatives to providing a free ad.
Unsold Super Bowl slots
Fox has been having trouble selling
<http://www.adage.com/images/random/war_button.jpg>
Super Bowl spots this year as the economy and the availability of other
marquee events like the upcoming Winter Olympics vie for attention. Fox has
two to three spots left to sell as of today and hopes to have the rest sold
in the next two days, according to sources at Fox.
Normally the Partnership develops themes for the drug office ads and then
selects ad agencies to produce the ads. Up to now Ogilvy managed the
account and bought media time with media shop MindShare and produced
<http://www.adage.com/images/random/superbowlpromo.jpg>
some minor ad creative for niches or publications in which Partnership
creative didn't fit. Ogilvy's only big creative work on the account had
been done as part of an effort for the Partnership.
The drug office ads will be only the second time in recent years that the
government has run national advertising on the Super Bowl, although the
agency had bought local spots during the game. In 2000 WPP sibling Y&R
Advertising, New York, spent slightly less than $1.5 million for a single
ad for the Census Bureau on the Super Bowl. That year Super Bowl ads were
selling for between $2.3 million and $3 million. This
Related Stories:
WHITE HOUSE DRUG OFFICE PUTS ACCOUNT IN PLAY
Proposals Requested for $152 Million Ad Program
WHITE HOUSE CUTS OFF OGILVY CONTRACT
Action Follows Criminal, Civil Probe Into Anti-Drug Account
OGILVY & MATHER: HONEST MISTAKE OR FRAUD?
FBI, GAO Continue Probes of White House Drug Account Billings
year they have been selling for far less.
Ogilvy's last hurrah
For Ogilvy, the creative on the Super Bowl could be a last hurrah on the
campaign. Accounting and billing issues that have resulted in an ongoing
criminal investigation of the agency has prompted the drug office to put
its account into review.
The selection of a winner is expected in March. Ogilvy remains among the
competitors for the account.
Wayne Friedman and Richard Linnett contributed to this report.
- --
- ----
Dale Gieringer (415) 563-5858 // [EMAIL PROTECTED]
2215-R Market St. #278, San Francisco CA 94114
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