Okay, let’s set the ground rules first. To be considered for Worst of the Year, the marketer had to be chosen as one of our Worst of the Week recipients. Now, on with the award!
Back in May, our IDED “Worst of the Week” post received the most traffic ever on our blog … more than twice the amount of traffic of our next most highly-read post. And, unlike some of our “Worst of the Week” selections, things just got worse all year long for the IDED and their out-of-state marketing/PR firm – Burson Marsteller.
Remember, last May, when we named IDED “Worst of the Week” after they selected an out-of-state PR firm to help us PR-challenged and feeble-minded Iowans with our own $3-million economic development campaign?
Now, let’s be honest here. It’s a little early to start pointing fingers about PR hiring decisions for this fancy PR program we’re going to be getting, even though we continue to lose ground daily on the economy/jobs front. So, don’t start blaming IDED, yet. They’ve been real busy lately overseeing a multi-million dollar tax credit program for the film industry. And don’t blame the folks at Burson Marsteller because they’ve been busy polling and educating all of us ignorant Americans about the switch to digital television. That’s right, check this out:
HEADLINE:
PR FIRM SAVES A WHOPPING THREE JOBS
WITH $6-MILLION IN STIMULUS MONEY!
(This almost reads like a National Enquirer headline.)
A few weeks ago, we learned the Obama administration awarded a $5.97 million economic STIMULUS contract last June to BURSON-MARSTELLER (BM). THE PROJECT: to conduct a national PR campaign to advertise the switch from analog to digital TV … even after thousands of TV stations (and practically every media outlet) nationwide had already announced it six-eight months prior to the switch date. And here’s an interesting note: $2.8-million of that contract goes to a “polling” firm??
SO, WHERE’S THE STIMULUS?
Well as far a we can tell, three jobs were saved … at $2,000,000 per job? Yes, BM claims that much of the money was spent on advertising. But you still gotta be kidding!!!! Does anyone see what’s going on here? Are our tax dollars earmarked for economic stimulus now being used by Obama to pay off Hillary’s campaign debt?
And, do just a little digging and you’ll find that $6,000 of those funds went to a relatively new PR firm right here in Iowa called Larson, Shannahan, Slifka Group for their help in educating Iowans on the switch to digital television. This is the same PR firm that partnered with Burson Marsteller for the IDED marketing contract.
Perhaps we should just follow Burson Marsteller … and the money.
BM is a global PR firm headed by a guy named Mark Penn. Actually, Penn runs two firms. One is BM. The other is a national polling firm called Penn, Scheon & Berland (PSB). Hillary Clinton used both of them during her 2008 presidential campaign. And as a result of that campaign, she rang up $20-million in debt. Today, her remaining outstanding debt is $995,500, and every penny of that balance is owed to a polling firm. You guessed it … PSB. What a coincidence!!
And by the way, does anyone see the irony in the IDED’s decision to hire Burson Marsteller to do our PR work? Their previous in-state marketing firm immediately cut 19 people from their payroll shortly after BM won the contract. BM qualifies as a marketing vendor because they put together an affiliation with this relatively new, but well connected* Des Moines-based PR firm – Larson-Shannahan-Slifka Group/LSSG.
*Connected? Check out the roster of this political PR consulting group: Karen Slifka (former political consultant for the IA Republican Party), Chuck Larson (US attorney, Republican and former IA legislator), Joe Shannahan (former spokesman for Governor Tom Vilsack and former communications/legislative director for the IA Democratic Party.)
BOTTOM LINE:
BM gets the big bucks. 19 Iowa-based Marketing/PR pros lose their jobs.
LSSG receives their annual stipend for getting BM the contract,
Culver gets a couple of Republicans (Mr. Larson and Ms. Slifka) to support the IDED hiring decision. IDED’s director and several other leaders within IDED lose their jobs as a result of their handling of Iowa’s film tax credit program. Iowa tax payers get the bill. And that, my friends, is THE WORST OF THE YEAR.
Just this week, Governor Culver named Bret Mills as the new Iowa Department of Economic Development Director. First of all, congratulations on hiring an Iowan for the job – an economic development move that’s off to a good start! Mills is a Clay County native and holds degrees from the University of Iowa and Drake University. He’s also a CPA and a former member of the National Guard. Maybe, just maybe he can clean the political disaster left behind. But until then …
Congratulations IDED and Burson Marsteller, you’re our first ever Worst of the Year!
Author: AdMavericks
www.lessingflynn.com
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Riddle me this: Are you saying this is Hillary’s fault? Your republican is showing. :~)
We don’t care who is in office from a political party standpoint. We just think the whole IDED office needs a fire hose taken to it to clean it out!
This is the best yet…can’t stop laughing! Very poignant thoughts/statements…but I can’t help thinking this was written/narrated in the style of the SNL skit: REALLY? with Seth Myers and Amy Poehler.
Happy New Year from your friends @EdgeCore!
@DevinRange
Wow, this is amazing. I wasn’t lucky enough to see the initial post so this is the first I heard of the money trail. Very nice post illustrating the power of Politics and how the game is truly played. The entire operation seems to be a failure at this point. I wrote a post earlier in the year specific to the Film Fiasco and how it can be related to a bad project manager, in this case it appears to go far above the Govenor…
I wonder how the new PR/adverts people are doing. Do they have anything to do with the beneficial rankings that have been bestowed on Des Moines lately?
Betty, I am sure the Admavericks crew can best speak to the ‘PR’ world since that is their business. But, I am sure the rankings about Des Moines are not in the least bit skewed or overly ‘beneficial’ as you stated in your question. Those rankings come because other institutions or mediums have finally started to see how great the city of Des Moines is. It also helps that Bloggers like Admavericks, and the like, have helped spread the seeds around with fantastic Blogs that shift the focus to Des Moines, where it should be.
Oh Pete, you silly man. Many of those rankings are due to PR pitches. I agree with you that Des Moines is awesome, but rarely to reporters hit the road to research these things. It is often brought to their attention. I just wondered if the new Burston Marsteller people helped to do that. I would love to know.
Also, I would love to know if IDED is listening to this conversation or if they are all out of the office for the holidays.
Hi Betty, I’d like to know as well.
Pete, thanks for your kind words.
My guess is that its a combination of the both. A great city like Des Moines and PR agency having some pitch success. However, PR talk is cheap thought when jobs are lost – no matter how cool Des Moines is.
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