Strategic Perception Inc.

Unusual thoughts that win

  • Our Work
    • Politics
    • Corporate
    • Public Affairs
  • Awards
    • Telly Awards
    • Pollie Awards
  • People
    • Fred Davis
    • Strategic People
  • What They Say
  • Highlight Reel
  • Get In Touch
Advertising Age

McCain Beefs Up Ad Roster for General Election

Fred Davis Returns to Fold; Chris Mottola on Board

Ira Teinowitz
Advertising Age

WASHINGTON (AdAge.com) — Sen. John McCain’s campaign has quietly tapped two veteran GOP advertising executives to bulk up the team for the fall fight, one of whom is Fred Davis, who had left last year during darker times for Team McCain.

Mr. Davis, of Strategic Perception, Los Angeles, and Chris Mottola, a Philadelphia consultant, have joined Mike Hudome on the Foxhole Productions media team now headed by Mark McKinnon, vice chairman of WPP Group’s Public Strategies in Austin, Texas.

Mr. McKinnon has said in an interview with Texas Monthly last year that he would step down if Sen. Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination because he was unwilling to engage in the kind of attack advertising that would be needed against Mr. Obama during a presidential campaign.

He said this week he still supports Mr. McCain, but would become mainly a “cheerleader” if Mr. Obama won.

“If it’s Hillary, I stay and blitz every play,” he said.

Messrs. Davis and Mottola worked on the Bush Maverick Media ad team that was also headed by Mr. McKinnon, but the two are better known for work they each did in senatorial, congressional and gubernatorial campaigns for Republican candidates.

Mr. Mottola produced ads for Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., Arlen Specter, R-Pa. and New York Gov. George Pataki. The Specter race included a hard-fought 2004 primary challenge against conservative Pat Toomey. Mr. Mottola also was part of Rudy Giuliani’s media team last year.

Mr. Davis often uses a slightly less serious approach to political advertising and was enlisted by Republicans to successfully right Bob Corker’s campaign for the U.S. Senate in Tennessee in a widely watched race in which Mr. Corker faced then U.S. Rep. Harold Ford. He also handled the campaigns of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue. He currently handles the cable industry’s National Cable & Telecommunications Association.

Mr. Davis is making a return engagement to the McCain campaign. He was one of the campaign’s original ad consultants in early 2007, before the campaign started running low on funds and was forced to make major staffing cutbacks.

With no funds to pay ad consultants, Mr. McKinnon was subsequently pressed into service as the campaign’s main ad strategist, working without pay.

Mr. Hudome, the head of MH Media, Alexandria, Va., and former executive director of the Delaware Republican Party, is a veteran GOP advertising executive who handled numerous GOP campaigns when he was with Pintak Gautier Hudome Agency. MH Media has been buying media for the McCain campaign.

Foxhole also includes Justin Germany, a 28-year-old web ad expert, pressed into duty as cameraman and editor; and it has included Mark Salter, the campaign’s chief of staff and speechwriter, doing double duty as an ad copywriter.

Spi Press

The Tennessean
  • Bill Lee’s story, his faith and his refusal to air attack ads resonated with voters
Chattanooga Times Free Press
  • Lee won with a ‘stiletto and not a meat ax’
  • Bill Lee launches first ad in bid for governor’s seat
The New York Times
  • Ad Wars of 2016 Campaign Erupt in a Changing TV Arena
  • Governors Join in Creating Regional Pacts on Climate Change
National Journal
  • McCrory Announces 2016 Campaign Hires
  • John Kasich: The Résumé Republican
  • A Good Ad Still Matters
Campaigns and Elections
  • Will 2016 mark the end of big TV?
  • Top finishers in New Hampshire reject traditional playbook
The Blade
  • New Kasich ad slamming mud-slinging opponents hits TV in New Hampshire
Bloomberg Politics
  • John Kasich Super-PAC Borrows Trump-like Helicopter for New TV Ad
  • Ad War Breaks Out Between Jeb Bush and John Kasich
  • Staffing Up: John Kasich’s Super-PAC Hires Fred Davis as Media Strategist
Bloomberg Politics
  • Mark Halperin and John Heilemann are joined by Democratic strategist Bob Shrum, Republican strategist Fred Davis and author Jon Meacham on “With All Due Respect.”
  • Why Fred Davis is going to miss John Kasich
  • Mark Halperin and John Heilemann are joined by New Day for America’s Fred Davis on “With All Due Respect.”
  • This episode of Bloomberg TV’s “With All Due Respect” was shot at the Hollywood offices of Strategic Perception Inc.
Newsweek
  • Terrifying new anti-Ted Cruz ad will give you nightmares
Politico
  • Outside GOP group goes in big for Shuster
  • Pennsylvania ad: Kasich doesn’t quit
  • Pro-Kasich ad hints Trump, Cruz are ‘crazy’
  • Drones fly into the political ad wars
  • O’Donnell taps Davis for ad magic
  • Can McCain’s ads win an Oscar?
The Washington Post
  • This new anti-Ted Cruz ad is creeptastic
  • New Day for America: “Kelly’s courage”
  • John Kasich — remember him? — is on the rise in New Hampshire
  • Kasich taps two veteran advisers for expected presidential campaign
  • This is the ad that won David Perdue the Georgia Senate nomination
  • Jon Huntsman to resign from Obama administration
  • A tour of a political ad guru’s viral hits for the GOP
  • The Fix: The best (positive) campaign ad of the cycle?
  • Morning Fix: The Boxer blimp, the Demon Sheep and Fred Davis
  • Morning Fix: The best ads we’ve seen so far in the 2010 midterms
  • Morning Fix: Are Primaries A Good Thing?
  • Race, Celebrity and the Presidential Campaign
  • Washington Post’s Fix Blog: McCain Expands Campaign Media Team
  • Brand on the Run
  • ONE Campaign Hits Airwaves
CBS News
  • Super PAC supporting John Kasich runs Trump-inspired ad
  • 2010’s Campaign Scare Tactics
  • G.O.P. Ad Maker Fred Davis
  • Hot Ads of the Week: GOP Challengers Hitting Dems Hard
  • Hot Ads of the Week: GOP Challengers Hitting Dems Hard
  • Political Attack Ads Hit the Net
Time
  • Super PAC Contrasts Kasich With Trump in New Ad
  • The GOP’s Hottest Mad Man
  • Best Viral Campaign Ads of 2010
  • The GOP Mastermind of Carly Fiorina’s Demon-Sheep Ad
  • The Anti-Obama Campaign That Didn’t Happen
  • Halperin’s Take: The Five Most Important People in American Politics Not Running for President
The Wall Street Journal
  • For Kasich, New Hampshire Presence Is Paying Off
  • The Problem With Illinois Politics? It’s the Hair (Blagojevich’s, That Is)
  • As Economic Crisis Peaked, Tide Turned Against McCain
  • McCain Team Scrambles to Rescript Show
Morning Joe
  • Ohio Gov. John Kasich Gaining Ground In Granite State
Advertising Age
  • Kasich PAC Won’t Go Negative in New TV Ad Despite South Carolina’s Dirty Politics Reputation
  • McCain Beefs Up Ad Roster for General Election
  • California Governor’s ‘Backwards’ Spot a Masterpiece
Adweek
  • An Anti-Cruz Attack Ad That Can Give You Nightmares
  • Please Bring Back the Demon Sheep Campaign Ad
Yahoo Politics
  • John Kasich keeps it real, maybe too real
The Columbus Dispatch
  • Kasich super-PAC ad features “The Hug” — and Tim Allen
  • Kasich hires strategist known for provocative campaign ads.
Talking Points Memo
  • Is This The Most Bizarre Ad Of The 2016 Race So Far? (VIDEO)
The Washington Times
  • Kasich super PAC secures top adman Fred Davis ahead of possible ’16 bid
  • Fracking wars hit the silver screen with supporters’ film “Truthland”
CNN
  • How political ads get inside your head
  • Pro-Huntsman effort launches website, offering 2012 clues
  • John King with Fred Davis: Political ads to remember
  • GOP’s ad wizard faces ‘demons,’ supports ‘nerds’
  • GOP ad “guru” Fred Davis
  • John King’s Political Fact Check
Washingtonian
  • 5 Videos That Changed Washington
Concord Monitor
  • Kasich campaign has been laying groundwork for a surge since the summer
AL.Com
  • Richard Shelby’s first TV ad of 2016 focuses on visits to all 67 Alabama counties
  • Gubernatorial candidate Tim James’ ad ignites Alabama GOP primary
Breitbart
  • Exclusive — Colorado Senate Ad Compares Illegal Immigration to Exploding Toilet, D.C. Dysfunction to Proctology Exam
Alabama Political Reporter
  • Richard Shelby Wins Primary Fight
New Republic
  • Ad Wars 2016: The Search for the Elusive Silver Bullet
The Atlantic
  • Meet David Perdue — He Might Be Georgia’s Next Senator
  • Georgia’s Senate Race Has the Best Ads of 2014 (So Far)
The Huffington Post
  • David Perdue Portrays GOP Primary Opponents As Crying Babies In Campaign Ad
  • California Senate: How Carly Fiorina Pulled Off Her Big “Upset” in the GOP Primary
The Charlotte Observer
  • Gov. Pat McCrory “keeps pounding” in first TV ad
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
  • Striking TV ads have shaped Senate race
Associated Press
  • In Ga. Senate Race, Crying Babies Rule TV Ad Wars
MSNBC
  • Jim Galloway on the 2014 Georgia Senate race.
  • Mad Man – the makings of a good political ad
  • SPI Once Again Makes the Top Ten
  • Nobody does viral ads better than Fred Davis
  • FIRST READ: Top 10 TV Ads
NBC News
  • First Read: Republican Senate Candidate’s Ad Goes After Congress
National Review Online
  • Obamacare’s Nebraska Nemesis
  • Demon-Sheep Strategist Says More Ads to Come
Los Angeles Times
  • From the ad man who brought us “demon sheep,” a few regrets.
  • As Obama hits the campaign trail, “Mourning in America” ad greets him, recalling the Reagan era
  • PolitiCal: Demon Sheep creator strikes again
  • Fiorina’s “demon sheep” creator speaks
Fox News
  • GOP Increasing Its Lead Over Democrats
  • Frank Luntz Focus Groups the “Language” Ad on Hannity
  • Alabama Gubernatorial Candidate Tim James Defends Controversial ‘Learn English’ Ad
Human Events
  • The Best and Worst Campaign Ads of 2010 Elections
SF Weekly
  • The Snitch: Adman Behind ‘Demon Sheep,’ Boxer Blimp Has No Idea How He’ll Top This
Politics Daily
  • Christine O’Donnell’s New TV Ad: “I’m Not a Witch, I’m You”
Alter Net
  • Meet the Man Who Brought You ‘Demon Sheep’ and Who May Change the Face of GOP Ads Forever
Roll Call
  • Political Firms Find D.C. Office Means Business
Politics
  • Shop Talk: Moving Numbers
TV Week
  • The Republicans’ Ad Man in St. Paul
The Tonight with Jay Leno Show
  • Dan Quayle appearance on The Tonight Show
The Rush Limbaugh Show
  • Rush Limbaugh “Bug Zapper”
The Hotline
  • Nerd Surge
CNet.Com
  • Political ads go up against DVR tech
Real Clear Politics
  • Revenge of the GOP Nerd
Detroit Free Press
  • Hoekstra leads, but the ‘Nerd’ is gaining
Sirius Satellite Radio
  • Adam Belmar interviews Fred Davis on POTUS
The Washington Examiner
  • It’s “Mourning in America”
The Register Guard
  • “Mourning in America” ad brilliantly taps Reagan magic
Yahoo News
  • Bizarre attack ad heats up California Senate race
Unusual thoughts that win
Bolt

COPYRIGHT MMXVIII STRATEGIC PERCEPTION INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

TRADEMARK AND COPYRIGHT INFORMATION: ALL MATERIAL ON THIS WEBSITE, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, TEXT, DATA, GRAPHICS, LOGOS, BUTTON ICONS, IMAGES, AUDIO CLIPS, VIDEO CLIPS, LINKS, DIGITAL DOWNLOADS, DATA COMPILATIONS, AND SOFTWARE IS OWNED, CONTROLLED BY, OR LICENSED TO STRATEGIC PERCEPTION INC. AND IS PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT, TRADEMARK, AND OTHER INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS. MATERIAL ON THIS WEBSITE IS MADE AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR YOUR PERSONAL, NON-COMMERCIAL USE AND MAY NOT BE COPIED, REPRODUCED, REPUBLISHED, MODIFIED, UPLOADED, POSTED, TRANSMITTED, OR DISTRIBUTED IN ANY WAY, INCLUDING BY E-MAIL OR OTHER ELECTRONIC MEANS, WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PRIOR WRITTEN CONSENT OF STRATEGIC PERCEPTION INC. IN EACH INSTANCE.