Racist Ad Spending Signals Disaster for DNC and Whitman Campaign

A recent study of campaign advertising expenditures for the November 2010 California gubernatorial election by one of the the nation's leading African American print advertising agencies, KimberKimber.com, has revealed major discrepancies between mainstream media, Hispanic media, and African American media outlets by political candidates and political parties nationwide. These discrepancies are being interpreted as racist and discriminatory in nature by the African American community and can easily be the deciding factor in many elections across the country.
The most glaring examples of these discrepancies were found in the current 2010 California gubernatorial race by Republican candidate Meg Whitman, whose campaign has spent a record $110 million dollars with mainstream and Latino media outlets while spending none of her campaign advertising dollars with African American media outlets. Similarly, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is spending $50 million dollars in their national "Get Out the Vote" advertising campaign in the next three weeks and none with Black owned media in California. Likewise, California's Democratic candidates have spent an estimated $80 million dollars collectively, and have not spent any of their advertising dollars with Black owned media.

(In the Portland area, neither Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Dudley nor his Democratic opponent John Kitzhaber spent any advertising money in The Skanner News or The Observer, the city's two Black-owned newspapers.
The Asian Reporter newspapr confirmed late Monday they had recieved no advertising whatsoever, while El Hispanic News -- traditionally partnering with The Skanner and the Asian Reporter as the Minority Press Association -- did not return a phone call at press time.
Sen. Ron Wyden and Multnomah County Commission candidate Loretta Smith advertised in The Skanner News, and East Multnomah Soil and Water Board contender John Sweeney advertised in both The Skanner and The Observer. No measure campaigns advertised in local minority media, although scattered Google ads appeared randomly on www.theskanner.com).
The Kimberkimber.com campaign advertising expenditure research found that between May 2010 and October 1, 2010, none of California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman's multi-million dollar media budget had been spent with California's African American owned media, compared to the $20 to $25 million dollars spent with Hispanic owned media, and $70 to $75 million dollars spent with White owned or "mainstream" media outlets.

"Despite having a huge media budget and a legitimate appeal to the African American voter, the Whitman campaign has made an infamous historical decision not to market her candidacy to the millions of African American voters in our state", explained Mark Kimber, CEO of Kimber, Kimber and Associates and KimberKimber.com

Further, the Kimberkimber.com study found the DNC and Democrat candidates running for office as being equally racist and discriminatory in their media buys. To date, neither the DNC, nor any statewide Democrat candidate, has placed any media buys with Black owned newspapers in the state of California, despite "bragging" about spending $50 million dollars nationally for a "Get Out the Vote" ad campaign.

"It's an amazing fact that the DNC and Democrat candidates are proving to be the most discriminatory and racist marketers in the history of our nation's elections. How can they (Democrats) spend $50 million dollars on a national 'Get Out the Vote' campaign and ignore their most supportive block of votes; the Black community. Historically, the whole strategy of a `Get Out the Vote' effort has been to target your most supportive base, until now it appears, and unless that base happens to be Black!" stated Kimber.

"We want answers to our questions as to why the African American media is not being utilized by candidates of both the Democrat and Republican parties to reach out to the African American voter. To this date, we have been unsuccessful in getting any response from campaign officials or their advertising agencies, political consultant groups, or pollster firms, currently being paid multi-million dollars by office-seekers, as well as both the Republican and Democrat political parties regarding these issues", stated Kimber.

About KimberKimber.com (Kimber Kimber & Associates): KimberKimber.com is a respected national advertising agency and marketing firm which specializes in African American print media campaigns including campaign development, market research, brand marketing and development, and diversity outreach campaigns. KK&A's expertise has been utilized by national and international corporations, political candidates, and governmental agencies.