IP Democracy: Advocacy Ad Campaigns Kick into Overdrive

My dear friend Gary Arlen (who reported from D for IP Democracy) has this great piece in TV Technology about the barrage of TV, print and billboard commercial messages launched by the cable and phone companies as Congress leads up to a Telecom Act rewrite. (Note: I reported some time ago Gary’s statistics on how much the cable/telco guys are spending on advocacy advertising.)

Gary notes how confusing some of the ads can be, particularly run back to back on TV.

They appeared with such frequency that commercial pods often had back-to-back commercials from both sides—thereby ensuring confusion to all but the most assiduous viewers. Most of the commercials seemed to run during local newscasts and public affairs shows and adjacent to upmarket programs likely to be viewed by the target audience. A Washington investment analyst jokingly confessed to me that he must watch the same shows as the targeted congressional staffers—given the frequency he saw the pro- and antitelco TV messages.

Adding more confusion to the mix is the rise of astroturf groups that are, of course, backed by either cable or phone companies (rarely both, except in the case of net neutrality).

Adding to everyone’s confusion was the sprouting of “astroturf” campaigns. That’s the term for the faux “grassroots” groups that spring up during hotly contested battles such as this one: designed to create the illusion of public interest”support. For example, the benignly-named “TV 4 Us Coalition” made frequent commercial appearances, stressing its slogan “We want choice” as it aggressively cited cable TV operator abuses.

The roster of Coalition members includes The National Taxpayers Union, the Latino Coalition, the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, the Women’s Presidents Organization, the Construction Industry Foundation, the Citizenship Foundation—and, oh yes, a dozen telecom manufacturers, the National Association of Manufacturers and AT&T. You can probably guess correctly whose money actually paid for the coalition’s ads.

Meanwhile, the cable cause is abetted by groups such as the “Broadband Everywhere Coalition,” a campaign—mostly using print media for now—that focuses on what it calls “The Phoneys.” Funded by NCTA, the American Cable Association plus African-American, Hispanic and women’s groups, “Broadband Everywhere,” has propounded “myths versus realities” to point out that the telcos have failed in all their previous efforts to develop video services.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on June 7, 2006 11:31 AM to IP Democracy