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Quick and dirty RATS! Caught in the Act!By Rick Horowitz "...getting absolutely clobbered in every news cycle. If we don't get back on -- Governor, c'mon in! You said you wanted to talk to us about something?" "You bet I want to talk to you about something. What do you think I want to talk to you about?" "Well, we're kind of hoping you want to talk about health care for seniors, or maybe -- " "The ad, boys and girls. I want to talk about that ad. Will somebody please tell me what in the name of God is going on here?" "Governor, we were just as surprised as you were. In fact, I was just saying to everyone, 'Golly, how could something like this have happened?' We're looking into it, of course, and we've already pulled the ad out of rotation. But to play it on page one of the New York Times? I mean, where's their sense of -- " "'RATS'!" "Excuse me?" "'RATS'? We put 'RATS' on the screen right in the middle of our ad?" "Actually, Governor, it was part of 'bureaucrats,' and we were just making the point that under Gore's drug plan, people would -- " "In huge capital letters? Some subliminable message?" "I think you mean 'subliminal,' Governor. But anyway, apparently there was one frame in the whole ad that had those particular letters showing like that. One frame out of 900 or so." "Which is what I told the reporters: One frame in a whole ad, it can't be much of a conspiracy, can it?" "And that's exactly the right approach to -- " "They're not buying it. They're not even close to buying it. They say it had to be deliberate, that you can't have some subliminable -- " "Subliminal." "That's what I said: You can't have some subliminable message just flash on the screen by accident. That's what they're all saying. And my answer is...?" "'The Democrats' ads are deceptive, too.' That's your answer. 'Why aren't y'all looking at the Democrats' ads?'" "Not good enough, folks. They're fixated on this one, they want to know exactly how it happened. So what are our ad guys saying?" "Castellanos? He's saying just what he should be saying -- 'purely accidental,' he's not that clever, he was just trying to get people to focus on the word 'bureaucrats,' that kind of thing." "In other words, he's denying it. He's saying he wasn't trying to go subliminalable." "Subliminal. More or less." "He wasn't trying to go subliminalable at all -- that's what he's saying." "At least for the moment. But we think he'll hang tough. And if he has to take the fall, he'll take the fall -- he's a big boy." "Why don't I think that's going to do it? Why do I think we're totally off our message again? Why do I think we keep messing up in a major way lately?" "A thirtieth of a second, Governor. Who ever figured anybody'd make such a big deal out of a lousy thirtieth of a second?" "But it isn't just any thirtieth of a second, is it? It's a subliminabalable thirtieth of a second! That's the whole point -- it's a subliminabalable thirtieth of a second!" "If I can look at the bright side, Governor?" "There's a bright side?" "Nobody can ever accuse you of giving the order." Posted 9/13/00. This
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Rick Horowitz