How Did Hillary Clinton Screw This Up? For Starters, Her Advertising Was All Wrong

Advertising Age ^ | November 9, 2016 | Simon Dumenco

[Auntie Mame]

So where did Hillary Clinton go wrong? Other than, well, being Hillary Clinton -- a widely disliked and distrusted candidate?

Ad Age Editor Ken Wheaton just asked me if I thought Donald Trump's triumph is about "traditional advertising and millions in spending being useless."

My short answer: Actually, no.

My longer answer is that, while Donald Trump obviously benefited from an unprecedented level of free media coverage, which convinced him for much of the race that he didn't need to waste money on ads, in the end Team Trump did, in fact, plow a ton of money into advertising -- and it cunningly, strategically outperformed tone-deaf Team Clinton.

To put that another way, Clinton badly screwed up her ad game.

[vooch]

Jane,

indeed - it was somehow jarring that the arrow pointed right. I also thought the cool colors hues were a poor choice.

‘stronger together’ & ‘I’m with her’ were totalitarian style slogans which could have been used by Stalin, Mao, or Pol Pot.

[Nevadan]

That was excellent! Thanks for the link.

[zeestephen]

Re: “I wonder what the ‘real’ numbers are once you take out Philly and Detroit voter fraud.”

I agree. It's very possible there is significant fraud in those two cities.

However, in my lifetime, Republicans have been claiming voter fraud since Nixon-Kennedy in 1960.

And what serious, or sincere, efforts have Republicans made to stop voter fraud since 1960?

Almost none - unless you count Voter ID, or updating voter rolls, which might stop some fraudulent voting, but depends entirely on local enforcement.

My blunt opinion - if the GOP loses because of fraud, we deserve to lose, because our efforts to stop it are completely pitiful.

[GCC Catholic]

I don’t disagree with you. Complaining about losing due to fraud you could have prevented is like a football team complaining about losing because of penalties.