RE: Political ads with phone numbers

["Paul Hopfgarten" <paul@03038.com>]

If anyone is watchingn SNL tonight, they're doing a great send-up of exactly
this issue..

Call Candidate X and telling to stop telling people to call Candidate Y...

and...

Candidate Y has disconnected his office phones....so call him at home at
201-555-0199....

Paul Hopfgarten
East Derry NH 03041
paul@03038.com


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org
> [mailto:owner-boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org]On Behalf Of Mark
> Laurence
> Sent: Saturday, November 02, 2002 6:37 PM
> To: bri@bostonradio.org
> Subject: Political ads with phone numbers
>
>
> A lot of political ads this year include a phone number, and I'm
> wondering why.  Until this year, it seemed most ads were content to
> pump up the candidate or blast the opponent.  This year, many of the
> ads include a quick message to "call Mitt Romney and tell him you don't
> want him to throw old people out in the street" or "call Shannon
> O'Brien and tell her to stop throwing away the pension money."
> Obviously they're really attack ads, but the phone number seems almost
> like a disclaimer.  They don't repeat the phone number or truly
> emphasize that part of the message.
>
> Is there some law that's making ads get worded this way?  Most, maybe
> all of them, are paid for by organizations and not the candidates or
> their own committees.  Why the sudden interest in getting people to
> call the candidates?
>
> Mark Laurence
>