ADWEEK reports that GSD&M co-founder Roy Spence has signed on to be one of three top advertising executives in charge of marketing strategy for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. Spence formerly was the lead media consultant for Walter Mondale’s 1984 presidential campaign. I wrote an article about Spence’s role in that campaign. It’s not available in the online archives, but if you’re dying to read it, see “Come on Walter . . . Smile!” [I didn’t write the headline], February 1984. You may recall that Mondale won exactly one state from Ronald Reagan that year–his home state of Minnesota. (Not Spence’s fault). It’s very possible I’ll soon be assigned to write, “Come on Hillary…Bake Those Cookies!” If so, the first two questions I will ask Spence are:
* After sixteen years of two polarizing presidents, do we really need a twenty-four years and a third polarizer?
* What will happen to the Texas Democratic party if Hillary is the Democratic nominee? Won’t it lose a bundle of legislative seats just after it seemed to be making a comeback? And if she wins, won’t 2010–the next statewide election and the year before redistricting–be a disasster for the Democrats?
The blurb from ADWEEK:
Clinton’s Ad Team Comes into Focus
January 29, 2007 WASHINGTON — Sen. Hillary Clinton, who last week kicked off her 2008 presidential bid, has begun tapping into Madison Avenue to build her marketing team. The ad executives involved include Roy Spence, CEO of Omnicom’s GSD&M; Andy Berlin, CEO of WPP’s Voluntary United Group; and Jimmy Siegel, a former BBDO senior executive creative director who is now cd at a-political, an issues advocacy marketing firm.
