Rauner readies TV ad campaign
Monday, Jun 15, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Subscribers know more about this Carol Marin scoop…
NBC Chicago has learned Turnaround Illinois, the independent expenditure committee formed in April to “support state legislative candidates who support Gov. Rauner’s bold and needed reforms and to oppose those who stand in the way,” is on the cusp of making its first ad buy in the Chicago television market reportedly for an estimated $450,000.
When asked about this, the governor’s office had no comment. But according to sources who track such transactions, the ad buy is currently set to run from June 16 through June 22.
Local television stations were told Friday to expect orders to arrive Monday morning for commercials to begin airing on Tuesday.
- Commonsense in Illinois - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 9:08 am:
Well this should bring about a satisfactory resolution to the stalemate in Springfield… Ah yes, peace and harmony…
- slow down - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 9:09 am:
The Rauner never ending campaign sadly is not a substitute for actual governing.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 9:10 am:
“Winter is coming”
- Goldwater Republican - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 9:13 am:
“unless of course War were Declared”, “Whats That”?
“War Were Declared”
- anon - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 9:15 am:
or not
- OneMan - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 9:15 am:
Think the hockey game tonight would have been a good place to start the ads.
- Juvenal - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 9:18 am:
$450,000 for one week in the Chicago market is not going to move the needle an inch, especially during the Stanley Cup finals.
If anything, it moves the needle backward.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 9:21 am:
Publicly own you are doing this, Governor’s Office;
Not the best way to instill trust with bargaining partners.
You need “friends” in governing. Not everything is accomplished by degrating or trying to leverage people with personal attacks via ads; the difference between campaigning and governing in a nutshell.
- Snucka - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 9:25 am:
I’m sure the Speaker is scrambling to contact the governor personally, in order to surrender and avoid having negative ads run against him.
- Wordslinger - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 9:27 am:
“Independent” must not mean what I thought it did.
The spots better be home runs if they’re supposed to resonate until November 2016. Like “Daisy” memorable.
As to that $20 million the governor reportedly is dangling to potential legislative candidates, I presume that’s coming out of his campaign fund,
He couldn’t be coordinating and promising money from “independent” funds. That would be corrupt and illegal.
- PublicServant - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 9:27 am:
In place of Ad, use Propaganda, and you’ve hit the mark, Rich.
- SAP - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 9:27 am:
Serious question: Is it to Madigan’s and Cullerton’s advantage to let Rauner burn a bunch of cash on summer advertising over the summer when nobody is watching TV and the next election is a year and a half away. I know Rauner has tons of cash, but his money supply is not technically infinite. Every dollar he spends now is a dollar he does not have available in a specific campaign.
- A guy - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 9:27 am:
===Juvenal - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 9:18 am:
$450,000 for one week in the Chicago market is not going to move the needle an inch, especially during the Stanley Cup finals.
If anything, it moves the needle backward.===
Dude, you must know less than nothing about ad rates.
- Macbeth - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 9:31 am:
The last thing I want to see right now — in this hot, rainy summer — is political ads.
The absolute last thing. Let Rauner advertise. Whatever. It’ll bug the heck out of more people than it will help.
Besides — didn’t we just elect this guy to govern?
- Arsenal - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 9:33 am:
==Is it to Madigan’s and Cullerton’s advantage to let Rauner burn a bunch of cash on summer advertising over the summer when nobody is watching TV and the next election is a year and a half away.==
I wouldn’t say it’s “to their advantage”, but if I were Madigan, I’d rather he spend, say, half his money now and half in 2016 than all in 2016. But I’d most rather he not spend it at all.
- State worker - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 9:35 am:
Now Cullerton and Madigan know how Governor Quinn felt this time last year with ads looming ahead. It’s tough to be outspent.
- MrJM - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 9:35 am:
In September of 2010, the Democratic nominee for governor spent $450,000 on a week of airtime in Chicago. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-09-25/news/ct-met-illinois-political-tv-advertis20100925_1_broadway-bank-tv-attack-ads-democratic-tv
Don’t know if it will move the needle or not, but nearly half a million dollars of ads ain’t nothing to sneeze at.
– MrJM
- Wordslinger - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 9:38 am:
– Think the hockey game tonight would have been a good place to start the ads.–
I’m sure they would have been received just as well as politicians are at sporting events.
- Ghostbusters - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 9:39 am:
I’ll be on vacation.
Pretty sure they don’t air Chicago market ads where I’m going.
- Yield Bump - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 9:41 am:
All public outrage will pale in comparison to the outcry from those 4H kids who don’t get their prize money after winning animal show competitions at the State and County Fairs. Rauner is destroying our agricultural heritage.
Or, maybe not.
Those farmers were outraged when Blago did it. But now that the farmers have a GOP governor, it may be OK…
- Anon2U - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 9:41 am:
What if they are positive spots on how great Illinois could be? End the Madigan gridlock and let’s prosper type stuff.
And no ads during tonight’s Blackhawks game. The Cup is in the house forgodsakes!
- SAP - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 9:44 am:
Arsenal: That’s what I’m trying to say. I’d rather see him burn as much cash as possible now so it is unavailable come election time.
- OneMan - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 9:44 am:
== – Think the hockey game tonight would have been a good place to start the ads.–
I’m sure they would have been received just as well as politicians are at sporting events.
==
A) Watched live and you will not have people switching away during the commercials nearly as much as regular TV.
B) I am duly impressed that everyone seems to judge the quality of an ad they haven’t seen.
- Arsenal - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 9:47 am:
@SAP-
There will be plenty more money available at election time, though. His operating budget isn’t actually “Infinity” but it functionally is.
His problem may be more in 1) too diffuse a message; 2) Message burn-out, like Meg Whitman faced in CA.
==In September of 2010==
The timing seems like a distinguishing characteristic, MrJM. I suspect $450,000 buys more ads now, but probably has less staying power.
- A guy - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 10:02 am:
=== Wordslinger - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 9:38 am:
– Think the hockey game tonight would have been a good place to start the ads.–
I’m sure they would have been received just as well as politicians are at sporting events.===
Sold out anyway. Unless you want to hedge on third position “overtime” spots, very late in the evening in “sandwich” time slots.
Now, if you want Pierre to talk about it between the glass, might have an opportunity there. /s lol.
- zatoichi - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 10:12 am:
Political TV ads of any kind = get the remote
- William j Kelly - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 10:17 am:
I am not so sure another 20 million dollars worth of adds featuring Madigan dressed as an aerobics instructor from the 80s will change anything but dan profits bank acount.
- walker - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 10:19 am:
New ball game. Prejudgment isn’t very reliable.
Might make more sense to view this first phase of Rauner’s “turnaround” campaign as ending May 2016. In that frame, what happens with the fiscal 2016 budget is preliminary staging.
- VanillaMan - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 10:23 am:
So, the governor who doesn’t read the newspaper, watch the television, or google data - believes he needs to run television ads to change opinions of voters currently supporting Democrats.
He must hold an awfully low opinion about everyone who isn’t him, doesn’t he?
- Wordslinger - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 10:32 am:
Guy, no air time is ever “sold out” if the price is right. Stations have always been able to make deals to move previous buyers and Game 6 was never a sure thing until last Thursday.
- Norseman - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 10:32 am:
=== B) I am duly impressed that everyone seems to judge the quality of an ad they haven’t seen. ===
I’m sure they’ll be slick spots that will effectively obfuscate the issues.
- Under Further Review - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 11:00 am:
Different method of message delivery, but it is not unlike 1995-1996 when Madigan blanketed the mailboxes of contested House districts nonstop. Madigan lost the Speaker’s position to Lee Daniels for two years and he was hell bent on reclaiming the majority.
The key difference was that Madigan was able to craft messages specific to individual districts and attack freshmen GOP legislators by name.
- Arsenal - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 11:09 am:
==The key difference was that Madigan was able to craft messages specific to individual districts and attack freshmen GOP legislators by name.==
There’s no indication that these ads *can’t* do the same thing. I mean, I’m doubtful- a PAC ad running for just one week doesn’t seem like it could service every Dem in the Chicago media market- but we should wait and see.
- cdog - Monday, Jun 15, 15 @ 12:44 pm:
“Craft message?” You bet. That seems to be the MO of the very crafty Team Rauner.
They appear to be governing, and interacting, by focusing on manipulating Perceptions. (Very similar to the public perception campaigns used by the GW Bush administration.)
If Rauner is in the room with Madigan and Cullerton, the Perceptions are manipulated to keep them appeased until he can get to the mic and label them crooks. If he is on the road talking to voters, he wants them to Perceive that he is the only one negotiating in good faith against all the bad insiders. If he has a spokesperson in a meeting, a decoy Perception is being tossed for all to follow such as “sexist attack.” If there are questions about the his budget/their budget, he is going to avoid everything but the Perceptions he wants to imbed in the collective thoughts.
When the ads start, be sure to consider this–the Truth is most likely completely opposite of the Perception the ad is trying to create.
Good luck to the folks who are being pummeled by this exercise. Keep chipping away at this Perception weapon by exposing it for what it is.
Maybe somebody in the media can write an analysis of all the ads that are run, and expose the manipulations that will undoubtedly be included.