16 June 2004

by Anai Rhoads

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AnaiRhoads.org - Not since March has the Bush campaign managed to anger Americans with inappropriate advertising tactics.

The advertisements, produced by Red Sea, LLC., were released by a conservative group called the Club for Growth Wednesday, despite being considered in poor taste.

They feature a comparison between the late President Ronald Reagan and President George Bush, displaying old footage of Reagan's infamous line "Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall", and scenes of Bush overlooking the devastation at ground-zero after the 9/11 attacks.

The advertisements give the impression that Reagan, who suffered from Alzheimer's prior to his recent death, endorsed Bush for re-election.

"It's pretty sad that less than a week after America said farewell to President Reagan, George W. Bush's supporters are politicising it," Kerry campaign spokesman Chad Clanton said.

The commercials have left America in the middle of a debate. Bush was criticised for this 9/11 references in previous advertisements, and now the conservative party is allowing images of the recently dead Reagan to gather America's sympathy in hopes of getting more votes in November.

The Club for Growth defend their commercial, but did not gain sufficient approval from the Reagan family prior to releasing these advertisement according Reagan family spokesperson, Joanne Drake.

"No one has requested the permission to use his (Reagan's) image in an ad, nor would we feel it appropriate to give such permission at this juncture," Drake said.

Club for Growth President Stephen Moore replied to Drake's statement, saying, "I just concluded a very pleasant conversation with Ms. Joanne Drake, Chief of Staff to President Reagan and Mrs. Reagan. Ms. Drake asked, and I immediately agreed, that in deference to the wishes of the Reagan family, the Club will hold off on airing our latest commercial for one week."

The Right-Wing organisation will shell out $500,000 over the course of a week to run the commercial on several national cable networks and in Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

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