Pro-Charter Group Hires Ad Firm Whose Swift Boat Campaign Helped Sink Kerry
As the debate over charter schools ramps up in Massachusetts, groups on both sides of the issue are preparing to inundate you with ads.
Public Charter Schools for MA, a proponent of the referendum on lifting the state’s cap on charter schools, has purchased $6.5 million in advertising for the seven weeks leading up to the election, reports Politico Massachusetts. The ads—produced by DC-based SRCP Media and booked for WBZ, WFXT, WCVB, WSBK, WHDH, and WLVI—will start appearing September 20.
You may remember SRCP Media’s infamous “Swift Boat Veterans For Truth” smear campaign, which helped scuttle John Kerry’s presidential aspirations in 2004 by peddling discredited claims regarding his military career during the Vietnam War and claiming that his anti-war activism had put fellow servicemen at risk.
The campaign was so effective, “swift boat” has become synonymous with sliming of the highest degree, making some veterans ashamed to even mention the small, aluminum boats they served on. Though Sen. John McCain, another Vietnam veteran, called the ads “dishonest and dishonorable,” he still enlisted SRCP’s help for his doomed 2008 presidential bid.
On the other side of the charter debate is Save Our Public Schools, which has brought aboard the DC-based New Media Firm for its upcoming ad blitz, reports Politico.
