Media Mavericks

Media consultants aren't afraid to step on a few toes in the cutthroat business of sex, lies and videotape

Their critics regularly refer to media consultants as bullies and bottom-feeders, saying they twist-or fabricate-the truth to suit their needs and play on voters' worst fears.

But strategists, while acknowledging their willingness to go for the jugular, generally take exception to their critics' accusations, saying their ads are factually sound, backed up by reams of research and generally dictated by the tenor and pace of a campaign.

Still, the successful ones-those who win campaigns-are effective for a reason: they're willing to push the limits of what others consider acceptable in order to get the job done.

Scott Howell: Fair and Funny

"I'm the guy the Democrats love to hate," said Republican media consultant Scott Howell, who is based in Dallas. "I try to define a race on my terms and keep it in front of me when I can."

Howell is best known, of late, for Grafting an independent expenditure ad for the Republican National Committee last cycle targeting then-Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D) who lost the Tennessee Senate race to Republican Bob Corker.

The anti-Ford ad featured a white woman who said she met Ford, who is black, at a Playboy party and invited him to call her. The spot made national headlines when critics accused it of including racial overtones, but Howell takes strong exception to that suggestion.

"We had to do something to cut through the clutter. We thought it was a fair and funny ad that defined Harold Ford," Howell said. "We wouldn't put it up if we didn't think it would work. We were going off of our research and where the campaign was at that time."

Many political consultants say success comes to those who aren't afraid to push the envelope. One Republican operative said the controversial Ford spot was exactly what was needed at the time to salvage the teetering Corker campaign.

Furthermore, this insider added, it is not surprising that Howell was the media strategist behind the ad.

"Scott Howell is creative and takes risks with his ads. But his record shows that his approach works, and he wins campaigns," the operative said. "This ad effectively refocused the camp on Ford's record and his votes, no doubt it worked."

Howell stresses that there's no substitute for the facts, noting that even his most visually creative and entertaining ads are laden with facts that convey specific messages about his candidate, his candidate's opponent or both.

Media consultants like Howell may be anonymous to most American voters, but their handiwork isn't. And, increasingly, the television and radio commercials they create are becoming stories that eclipse the candidates they're charged with aiding (or those they're paid to discredit).

One Republican operative, who requested anonymity, said Howell's ads are likely to get covered as news stories because of their entertainment value. This operative, while acknowledging that a hard-charging style doesn't always guarantee a successful campaign, said it's preferable to hire someone with a pit bull mentality.

"Howell will do whatever it takes to win, and I applaud that approach," the GOP insider said.

Bill Hillsman: Gives Longshots a Chance

Hard-hitting humor can work especially well for relative unknowns. Bill Hillsman has made a career of helping long shots like Ned Lamont, Kinky Friedman, Ralph Nader and the late Democrat Paul Wellstone.

Wellstone faced a 50-point gap in his first Senate campaign to unseat Sen. Rudy Boschwitz, R-Minn, in 1990. Using a wildly popular "Where's Rudy" ad that went for the jugular with a smile, Hillsman helped propel Wellstone to national acclaim.

But Wellstone turned elsewhere for his re-election campaign in 2002.

"I've heard of many people who used him once who wouldn't use him again," said one Democratic consultant who requested anonymity. "His vision could drive you off a cliff. He's a lightening-in-a-bottle kind of marketer. He either gets it right or gets it spectacularly wrong to such a degree that it will cost you the race."

After Colleen Rowley made the cover of Time magazine for being an FBI whistleblower, for example, she hired Hillsman to help her run for Minnesota's Third Congressional District. Hillsman pushed her into an "agent for change" slogan that some consultants considered a cartoon-like effort that belittled her courage. Voters agreed, and Rowley lost by 16 percent.

Hillsman says his creative ads (like the "Insanity" car crash spot he created for Connecticut Senate candidate Ned Lamont that one blogger called "sheer genius") have contributed to his tough-guy image. But, like many consultants, he runs from the title.

"Slash-and-burn tactics ... don't appeal and they don't work," said Hillsman. "But there's nothing wrong with doing contrast ads," he said. "The way we do them is quite different than the typical attack ads that people see."

He points to his firm's unique "honesty" clause, which protects him from being fired if he refuses to produce an ad that wouldn't meet the veracity standards legally demanded from commercial ads.

Steve Murphy: T-Rex in a Bullpen

Steve Murphy is one Democratic strategist who has less of a problem with his pit-bull image. Murphy said he's willing to do what it takes to be effective. (Translation: He'll go after his opponent with the advertising equivalent of a hatchet as long as the ad can be backed up with facts and focus groups like it). Ironically, Murphy said the ads that tend to work the best in the modern media environment are those that use humor to discredit an opponent. Murphy described them as ads that "take the edge off."

Murphy produced a number of independent expenditure ads last cycle for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee-the spots helped the DSCC win Senate campaigns in Maryland, Montana and Rhode Island, to name a few. With the proliferation of cable stations, the Internet and digital video recorders. Murphy said consultants need to pay a lot more attention to creativity, production values and voter appeal.

"At times we're extremely hard-hitting," Murphy said. "I wouldn't quarrel with that characterization. We're keeping up with what voters on the other end of the phone will tolerate."

One Democratic operative, who requested anonymity, declined to go so far as to refer to Murphy as a bull in a china shop. But that's only because this insider doesn't believe politics is analogous to fine china. "He's like a T-Rex in a bullpen."

The consultant said Murphy is known for his willingness to tell clients "like it is," even going so far to raise his voice to get his point across if needed. This Democrat said Murphy's willingness to be blunt can be helpful to his clients in the long-run.

"I think sometimes that can be effective with clients, because you have to be able to give them tough medicine," the Democratic operative said. On the other hand, it can also rub them the wrong way and lead them to hire another media strategist.

Doug McAuliffe: Respectful Bulldog

Doug McAuliffe, a Republican consultant who did work for President Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, has also worked on Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel's two successful Senate races. Last cycle he worked for Pete Ricketts' unsuccessful attempt to oust Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson, D.

McAuliffe tries to create a sense of controversy, raising questions about his target's character and judgment. He said much of what he creates, whether hard-hitting or lighthearted, is based on the pace of a campaign and what is required at a given moment.

McAuliffe created a series of ads for Ricketts that suggested Nelson wasn't being forthright in how he was paying his property taxes. McAuliffe was quick to point out that he went after Nelson on the property tax issue because the Nelson campaign raised the issue first in a similar attack on Ricketts-and data showed the issue resonated with voters.

"I think good consultants do not make decisions in vacuums," said McAuliffe, who directs his own commercials and has an edit suite at home in Great Falls, Va.

Barry Rubin, who was executive director of the Nebraska Democratic Party last cycle, didn't dispute the effectiveness of attack ads per se, but said the tactic backfired here. Rubin said the hard-biting tax ads turned off even moderate Republicans, and pushed them into the Nelson camp. "McAuliffe may push the limits, but in Nebraska his ads only hurt [his candidate]," said Rubin.

But although Ricketts lost, his campaign manager calls McAuliffe one of the GOP's best media minds. "Just statistically, he's had a lot of wins. And in this case, aggression didn't have a negative connotation, I thought it was definitely a positive," said Jessica Moenning, Ricketts' campaign manager.

"One of the things about Doug that I think is really good is he doesn't just direct your commercials, he'll dig into your poll results ... and wants to know what's going on in your ground game," Moenning said. "In terms of the quality of his products, he just really creates some beautiful pictures."

Moenning says any A-type personality is bound to step on toes, but that McAuliffe, at least, "is not always straight-ahead bulldog" when making the case for his ideas. "For instance, when we were working with the governor to record his radio commercials, the governor had several ideas and Doug was very respectful. If he feels like an idea is going to be helpful, he can be very soft."

Lou Ann Linehan, chief of staff for Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., worked in the trenches with McAuliffe during Hagel's first Senate race.

"In 1996, everybody else left, said it was over. We were falling like a rock. We were getting outspent, and they were just pounding [Hagel]. Doug and I drove around in his rental car for like two hours, and he came up with an idea that turned a race that was falling into a race that was winning by a significant percentage, and stayed within the parameters Sen. Hagel had given him," Linehan said. The ad McAuliffe created, she said, "delivered a harsh message without looking mean and negative."

Hagel went on to a stunning upset and is now mulling a presidential bid.

Regardless of their opinion on what makes a good attack ad, most media consultants tend to agree that attacking just for its own sake is a waste of time. An effective hit piece should be backed up by facts gleaned from extensive research, and make sense based on the dynamics of a particular campaign.

And if you can hit your opponent with a little humor, so much the better.

"In order to be effective with the comparative ad today, you have to get out of the typical doom-and-gloom ad with draconian music and a photograph of your opponent picking his nose," Murphy said. "Voters have seen all of that. They're not responding like they did 20 years ago."

[Sidebar]

One Republican operative said the controversial Ford spot was exactly what was needed at the time to salvage the teetering Corker campaign.

[Sidebar]

Regardless of their opinion on what makes a good attack ad, most media consultants tend to agree that attacking just for its own sake is a waste of time.