Forbes planning early ads for $10m

By Ron Fournier, Associated Press, May 30, 1999

WASHINGTON -- Multimillionaire businessman Steve Forbes this week is launching the first major advertising campaign of the 2000 cycle, laying out about $10 million this summer to get a jump on the leading GOP presidential candidates.

A heavy dose of television, newspaper, and radio spots will begin Wednesday -- 18 months before the general election -- in what campaign strategists say is the earliest-ever presidential ad blitz.

All but one of the TV ads are shot in black and white, some with a hand-held camera that captures Forbes discussing Social Security, taxes, and his claim to be "an outsider who's not a part of the political process."

Forbes's first-out-of-the-box strategy is modeled after President Clinton's presidential campaign, which commissioned ads early in 1996 to stake out positions on issues issues long before Republicans chimed in.

"We will establish him as the agenda-setter in the campaign," said Forbes's campaign manager, Bill Dal Col. He confirmed that a national ad package would begin Wednesday, but did not provide details.

The initial four-week ad cycle will cost the Forbes campaign more than $2 million, advisers say. That is more money than any GOP candidate except Texas Governor George W. Bush raised in the first quarter of 1999.

An internal memo obtained by the Associated Press says Forbes will start with seven different television ads airing nationwide on cable channels; a series of radio spots geared toward conservative listeners; and a full-page ad for national and local newspapers.

He plans a steady stream of ads until the 2000 primaries, advisers say.

Forbes, whose critical ads in 1996 staggered eventual GOP nominee Bob Dole, is starting out on the high road. "Steve Forbes' message is positive and issue-driven," reads the memo.

GOP polls place Forbes far behind the front-runners for the 2000 campaign, Bush and Elizabeth Dole, former president of the American Red Cross.

Six of Forbes's spots, produced by Bill Eisner of Wisconsin, cast dark shadows across the candidate's face and frequently mimic the wobbly camera style made popular in TV action shows such as "NYPD Blue."

Aides say Forbes's remarks were unscripted and gleaned from hours of tapings. According to the memo, the ads were shot in black and white to capture the feel of archival photography "to help place Steve Forbes in presidential history -- to see him as president of the United States."

Forbes plans to increase the size of his ad campaign in the fall and expand to Internet advertising, said a senior adviser, who, like all the sources, spoke on condition of anonymity.

The TV spots are set to air on CNN, Fox News Channel, and CNBC -- with added emphasis in states critical to his nomination strategy: Iowa, New Hampshire, Arizona, and California, advisers say.

The newspaper ad will appear this week in USA Today. Five papers in Iowa and New Hampshire will print the ad once a week for four weeks. The radio spot will air during Rush Limbaugh's conservative talk show, with the heaviest buys in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Forbes also is mailing campaign fliers to 150,000 Iowa residents.

The campaign expects to pay about $10 million for ads by the end of the summer, said the senior adviser.

Though Forbes is financing much of the campaign out of his pocket, aides say they expect him to raise $3 million in donations by the June 30 reporting date. That would put him on par with most of the GOP field.