Previous Buchanan Diaries and VDARE Invitation to Other Campaigns

Friday, October 6, 2000

Friday an off day in NYC, will watch my daughter's volleyball game; have to return to Virginia Saturday; meetings scheduled all weekend. Have spent the past two weeks working with the ad people, a terrific small company out of Houston. The creative director is a 24 year-old guy, to whom I funneled tons of immigration related material (Pat speeches, my comments, various kinds of demographic research) when the agency signed on. He and his team have produced dozens of radio scripts - about four on immigration - which we're using heavily in California, Arizona, Nevada, Florida and some other places; and a dynamite TV ad which should be up Tuesday in about a quarter of the country.

I've seen the script of the first TV ad (called "Meatball") and in fact suggested one of its key motifs. A rough-cut arrived today (while I was in NY). The people at headquarters who have seen it completely loved it, and they weren't immigration types at all. [For shocked, pc views of "Meatball" see the LA Times http://latimes.com/news/nation/20001010/t000096592.html and The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn
/articles/A41025-2000Oct9.html.] Tomorrow, David and agency head Brenda Love will be up in Tysons [Buchanan HQ], and we'll go over ad strategy with PJB - who has a rare day off from public appearances.

In the last few weeks I've become very impressed with our advertising people - who seem both quicker and more open-minded than journalists. I hadn't expected that.

God, I wish we had money for a real ad blitz - to saturate the country. Nine or ten million for a national campaign is a drop in the bucket.

Point of comparison: George W spent $5 million in Florida in one week alone; John Corzine has spent about $50 million for the New Jersey Senate seat.

Still...