Two Central Figures on the Kerry Media Team Go Toe to Toe

[Merlin]

It's good to see Mary Beth Cahill fighting to avoid the grotesque, but typical, avarice of Joe Trippi's firm in the Dean campaign.

Gee, it's too bad the two ad agencies placing media for the Kerry campaign have ONLY made a profit of "less than a million dollars" so far. It's time our party's "consultant" ad agency account execs stopped ripping off our party's candidates. After all, media placement ain't rocket science. Neither is writing creative ads. It's not like falling off a log. But it doesn't warrant obscene levels of compensation that sap our candidates' resources.


(NYT)
April 9, 2004
Two Central Figures on the Kerry Media Team Go Toe to Toe
By JIM RUTENBERG

...the campaign's announcement last week that Jim Margolis, a chief consultant behind those commercials, would significantly reduce his role because of a contract dispute puzzled party officials.
...

People close to the situation would speak only on condition that they not be identified, saying campaign decorum did not provide for publicly speaking about private contractual negotiations. But people on both sides agree that the lessening of Mr. Margolis's role was precipitated by a financial decision of Mr. Kerry's campaign manager, Mary Beth Cahill. She was determined to reduce the rate of commissions being paid to Mr. Margolis's firm, GMMB, and to Mr. Shrum's: Shrum, Devine & Donilon.

Media strategists customarily collect a percentage of the cost of advertising time that campaigns buy, a factor that helps make them among the best-paid people in politics. Yet people familiar with the arrangements at the Kerry campaign said commissions it had paid to its two main advertising firms were not only equal but also relatively modest, with rates in the low-to-mid single digits. These people said each of the two firms had earned a profit of less than $1 million in commissions so far.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/09/politics/campaign/09ADS.html?pagewanted=print&position=