I actually just saw a phone booth poster ad for this show and I have to say while I noticed it, the look of it was more Dawsons Creek than K-Street. I’m not sure how promoting this to reporters and to convention attenders is going to gain enough interest — especially with the intense distraction of the Convention itself. Political reporters don’t write for the TV pages…
The WB has a message for delegates at next week’s Republican National Convention: Vote McCallister.
In an unusual attempt to break through the barrage of advertising for the upcoming fall television season, the WB television network has launched a guerrilla marketing campaign for its new political drama “Jack & Bobby.”
The strategy is to create a cult following in political circles for the show — about the teenage McCallister brothers, one of whom grows up to be president — to serve as a core audience and create a groundswell of buzz, much like NBC’s “The West Wing” received five years ago, albeit without a similar marketing campaign.
Among the WB’s efforts: distributing DVDs of the show inside the White House and Capitol; organizing viewing parties at political rallies for local politicians; and blitzing the political conventions with fliers, placards and buttons. Next week, Republicans will get buttons that say “Bush 2004, McCallister 2040.” In one of the more unusual ideas, the WB is mailing boxes of M&Ms to TV pundits such as former White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers that are marked “President McCallister’s favorite candy.” Copies of the show were sent to the Days Inn that serves Crawford, Texas, in hopes that bored reporters would take a look. [WSJ.com]