Roundup: Bad Choices in Anti-Choice Advertising

Robin Marty

Note to advertising folk...always double check your opponent's name.

Today, it’s Attack of Bad Anti-Abortion Advertising Day!

Anti-choice campaign groups have been so busy picking targets, it’s not surprising they may get a little confused.  In Colorado, it seems one group started an ad campaign against someone who isn’t even running.

From The Durango Herald:

An anti-abortion group is running radio ads locally targeting “Congressman Ken Salazar.”

Ken Salazar, of course, is secretary of the Interior and a former U.S. senator from Colorado. His brother John is the Democratic congressman from western Colorado and the intended target of the ad.

Salazar is running against Republican Scott Tipton, whose campaign had nothing to do with the anti-abortion ad.

Americans United for Life took out the ad as part of a $600,000 nationwide campaign against 12 House Democrats who voted for the health-care bill that Congress passed this year.

“Ken Salazar says he shares our values when he’s running for re-election here at home, but in Washington, he votes for the largest expansion of taxpayer-funded abortions ever,” a female narrator says in the 60-second ad.

The commercial mentions Ken Salazar’s name five times.

Also, did you think you’ve seen the most extreme when it comes to anti-choice billboards?  A new one in Michigan, near a local high school, seems to once more be turning off more people than it’s really drawing in.  And, when you have to explain your advertising concept, you probably already lost the battle.

Via Fox News 11:

A billboard dealing with the controversial topic of abortion is getting some attention. The billboard is in Marinette, near the high school. It’s been up for about a week and a half. So far, there have been a variety of interpretations, and responses to it.

“It’s a little awkward and offensive,” said Samantha Bosch, a sophomore at Marinette High School.

“It’s just an anti-abortion sign is all I really see it as,” said Shane Cahill, a senior.

“It’s the way teenagers talk,” Michael Ebert, LifeCore president explained. “If someone is out too late they say ‘my mother’s going to kill me.’ This girl has gotten pregnant and she says ‘my mom’s going to kill me.’ Well what we also have is this girl is pregnant, and it’s clear you can see the baby. The baby does not have a voice so we’re giving the baby a voice: ‘my mom really is going to kill me.’ We give a place that if they want help: Bay Area Pregnancy Services provides alternatives for abortion and helps the girls who get into this situation.”

…

Some have expressed concern about explaining the billboard to children. LifeCore’s president says if a child is old enough to understand reproduction, the child is also old enough to understand the issue.

Mini-Roundup: Free mammograms for breast cancer awareness is becoming old hat. Now a Halo battle?  That’s different!

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