Commercializing Campaign Ads: California Roll For Mayor
We have an interesting phenomenon underway here in Phoenix – the outright commercialization of political campaign ads. It is the handiwork of a Scottsdale sushi restaurant, Stingray Sushi. In short, a corporation is using a political race as a straight up advertising vehicle for their product, without officially supporting or donating to either candidate. The ploy started off just riffing on hot button political issues such as:
“Bill Clinton Likes My Sushi”
“Larry Craig Likes Our Bathrooms”
“Blagojevich is the Best Tipper”
Stingray then morphed into playing off of a local initiative drive on the ballot. But now they have stepped square into a heated political race between competing candidates.
The current, and heaviest manifestation of this novel activity by Stingray to date, is the current Phoenix Mayor’s race, which will be decided on November 8. The race itself is supposedly non-partisan, however it pits longtime uber-Republican operative Wes Gullett, who was the chief of staff for disgraced (and convicted) Governor Fife Symington and has served in several administrative and campaign capacities for John McCain over the years, against a moderate, but fairly clear Democrat, former City Councilman Greg Stanton.
If the question is “is this legal”? Yes, it appears to be quite legal under both state and federal campaign law, although Stingray has had to put stickers on their signs advising that it is “Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s campaign committee.”
The ad campaign is the brainchild of a local ad and political consultant by the name of Jason Rose. I will have to give Jason credit here, it is pretty inventive and has certainly captured the imagination of Phoenix residents. Everybody has seen them, even my high school daughter talks about them. My wife thinks they are hilarious catch phrases now. Anytime I mention politics, she blurts out “Mayors Are Yum Yum!”.
Now, here is the better question – where does this go from here? Stingray is playing both sides of the electoral race fence in this campaign, but it is hard to believe others necessarily will do the same. Will bigger corporations exercise their right to free political speech decreed in Citizens United by branding themselves to a particular candidate? Is it a good thing to have electoral races clouded by raw corporate advertising pitches as opposed to actually taking a side?
I honestly do not know the answers to the questions raised, not the plethora of others that arise from this ad campaign. But I doubt it is a one off deal, you can expect to see other similar ad campaigns attached to elections in the future. What do you think??
Is Stingray plastering public spaces and boulevards with these ads the way the pols do?
I have no idea what I think. I just came to this article fresh from reading about do-it-yourself minstrel show kits for the amateur thespian troupe which were available*, and popular, in the late 19th century.
Maybe somewhere in there is the germ of an answer.
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*And distributed, with the plays, by such dramatic and educational publishers as Denison and Samuel French which, having moved on, still exist.
@Ken Muldrew: Yep, they are everywhere.
I don’t really see this catching on. Sure, a restaurant with an anime mascot went for it, but how many businesses would try this? Rose is quoted in one of your links as saying a lot of his clients turned him down on this idea.
@WilliamOckham: That may well be. I’ll say this though, it has proved VERY effective for Stingray.
Ok, sushi in the middle of the desert; something is incongruous about the underlying mercantilism of that.
I can foresee, say, an Orange County, CA, supervisor’s race with one candidate advertised by independent expenditure committee, to keep with the Rx of Citizens United, as The Irvine Company supervisor.
Or, perhaps in the San Francisco area, a supervisor advertised by independent uncoordinated with candidate committee as The Chevron supervisor.
The teaParty would like this, as well, I believe. Imagine the enhanced patina of entrepreneurial American spirit a US Senate seat would have if instead of being known as the Senator from Texas, the elected person would become known as the Halliburton Senator.
@JohnLopresti:
Or the representative from Cargill.
We need a complete overhaul of our political election system.
Can we blame this on Citizens United and the Roberts Court?
It does suggest that politicians, like sauce, have become less important as an exercise of corporate power than the corporation iteslf, the roll, than politicians would like to think.