Posted on 10/29/2011 10:00:12 AM PDT by freespirited
While Herman Cain's viral Web ad — in which chief of staff Mark Block pointedly takes a drag from a cigarette after extolling the presidential candidate's virtues — might have raised eyebrows among political strategists and heckles in Internet comment sections, the ad seems to have also raised the rate at which the insurgent campaign is bringing in fundraising dollars.
Cain has brought in nearly $2 million within the last week alone, nearly doubling his weekly returns earlier this month, his campaign told The Wall Street Journal. By contrast, Cain only brought in $2.8 million over the entire third quarter.
"Our donations online have shot up a lot since that ad,” Block told the Journal. “The money we are getting is wildly beyond our expectations."
Cain's campaign has argued that the ad was a manifestation of a nontraditional, down-to-earth style that has caught the Republican zeitgeist. The polls seem to echo that analysis, with Cain leading Mitt Romney 24 percent to 20 in a Fox News survey released earlier this week.
The candidate said earlier this week that the ad "did a great job" and represented his grassroots message.
"We have a saying in my campaign — let Herman be Herman. This is the attitude that I have when I do debates. This is the attitude I have when I do interviews: Let Herman be Herman. Mark Block is my chief of staff. And we also say, 'Let Mark be Mark,' " Cain said on Fox News. "Mark happens to be a smoker. He knows it's a bad habit, but he smokes. And so we weren't trying to send any subliminal message whatsoever. Many of us found it hilarious, because we know Mark Block."
Block said the ad enforced the idea of Cain as a "different kind of presidential candidate."
“Yes, the smoking part of that ad was controversial — and I don’t in any way condone smoking — but the message that Herman Cain is a different kind of presidential candidate is certainly resonating across the country,” Block said.
Yes. And we are damn sick of slick ads, all in red white and blue, with the candidate walking through groups of exact voter ratios of ethnic demographics, smiling, kissing babies, promising skittles-pooping unicorns.
We are ready for real.
I can honestly say for me, it isn't. I quit in '81.
I agree with your observations about things to do with mind and hands. I had a dream where I was smoking once....and I was HORRIFIED in my dream that I’d started again.
LOL
“38 years and you still want a cigarette every day?!”
Yup. I’m not at 38 years, but I want a cigar about every day. Didn’t like the taste of cigs, but a nice cigar...
If you can do it without anyone else, then sure. Otherwise, no.
Internet connection...$2
Cheap suit...$99
Pack of Marlboros....$12 in NYC
Free advertising by shocking liberals with a video of a guy smoking a cigarette...priceless.
This kind of press would normally cost millions.
I have to admit..I didn’t read this whole thread.
So it may have already been mentioned.
But usually, if any one mentions smoking there is a general scream of...OMG!!!
So everyone on FR republic agrees with this ad? How amusing.
One of the promises in the Big Book of AA declares that at some point as we honestly work the Steps, the craving will be removed. That was my experience.
I can relate to that!
I quit for 3 years once upon a time and the craving is gone, but not the thought of a cigarette, its easily passed...Why did I start again, a stupid reason I will keep to myself...but if one quits, just one cigarette starts it all over again and that one cigarette is a choice one makes..like any bad habit we quit once you start again, the old patterns come to the front...same with alcohol. One quits but if one takes that one drink, its starts all over again...just one won’t hurt is a lie..
The message....
Let Herman be Herman...
Let Mark be Mark...
Let me be me...
Let America be America...
Don’t tread on me.
Maybe he should do another ad at a Beef Steak House, or a NASCAR race.
Perhaps ? the point of it is ? that it’s not politically correct, and it’s even causing even those of the GOP and those who call themselves conservatives who are hidden political correcters heart palpitation.
The ad was a much needed stick in the eye to the nanny state.
As for smoking, yes I smoke, but have not bought a store bought cig for a long time. If I want a smoke I have to MAKE IT MYSELF. You will find that with homemade smokes, you smoke half as much, no additives in the tobacco.If you tire of making them, you don’t smoke.
is it true that all the cigarettes have to be put in electronically in post production because it is against the law to smoke in the studios and on the sets of Admen...
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