Dissecting the GSTV – Obama ads thing

Skirting controversy
GSTV’s editorial policy states that it “will never promote a particular view on controversial matters of public policy or political or industrial controversy.” The network, which runs news content from CBS News, also refrains from showing stories involving murder or guns. “It’s a G-rated network,” said Mr. Leider.

That didn’t sit well with the Obama campaign, which fired off a hard-hitting statement attacking GSTV.

In it, the Obama campaign’s communications director in Florida, Mark Bubriski, had this to say: “Once again, the oil companies and their friends are standing with Senator McCain, the candidate for president who is proposing to offer them a $4 billion tax cut. It looks like Gas Station TV doesn’t want the American people to know about Senator Obama’s plan to offer working families a $1,000 energy rebate that would be funded by a tax on oil company profits. The oil companies have taken sides in this race, and they are standing with John McCain.” The ads were to have run in Florida.

The campaign also claimed to have e-mails — between representatives of ABC National Sales, Obama ad agency GMMB and GSTV — proving that GSTV initially signed off on the ad. According to an e-mail from a Dee Parker at ABC National Sales, “GSTV owners have signed off on this” and that it has “approved the spot.”

Ms. Parker referred inquiries to the Obama campaign and GSTV. GMMB did the same.

E-mail forensics
According to GSTV, “The e-mail chain provided by the Obama campaign is 100% inaccurate. GSTV never viewed or approved the spot to air nor did GSTV receive an insertion order or payment for a media buy.”

Indeed, in the one e-mail from GSTV provided by the Obama camp, someone identified as Jeff Hupp writes that he could have the ad turned around in an hour after receiving an insertion order, but that he had yet to receive such an order. According to GSTV, Mr. Hupp is a VP-business operations. A spokeswoman for GSTV said it doesn’t have a direct relationship with ABC National Sales, but does partner with ESPN for content.

In a lengthy formal statement, GSTV went on to say that the “campaigns that contacted Gas Station TV did not receive approval to move forward with a media buy on our network. Gas Station TV must approve any ads running on the network and no political ads were sent to Gas Station TV for review and approval. … No invoices indicating approval from Gas Station TV to run a political ad were developed and at no time were related financial transactions completed with Gas Station TV and its partners.”

The company also made it clear it wasn’t taking Mr. McCain’s side, saying it wouldn’t take political ads “regardless of content or political party affiliation.”

In a phone interview, Mr. Leider also insisted that the reasons for rejecting political ads had as much to do with ad clutter as anything else. “We’re providing our traditional clients a non-cluttered environment,” he said. “It’s just best for our consumers and our advertisers to stay out of it.” Indeed, some of the company’s ad clients had been asking if their messages would be crowded out of the market by political ads this election season — as could happen in numerous TV markets throughout the country as presidential and congressional ads start to take over much of the airtime.

GSTV reaches about 17.5 million consumers each month (on more than 5,500 pumps in more than 400 cities) who are practically sitting ducks for advertising. As Mr. Leider likes to say, “They’re tied to the screen with an 8-foot rubber hose.” Talk about a captive audience.

Volatile issue
With energy policy perhaps the hottest issue of the campaign season, gas-pump messaging could have been a strong play. What better place to accuse your opponent of being the primary cause for high gas prices? Mr. Leider said that a “number of campaigns have approached us.”