Meet the Attack Lads – John Kerry Windsurfing

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Instructions: Click on the images below to watch the ads and meet the attack lads. Red links will take you to an appendix with more information.

Windsurfing ad (2004): Anti-Kerry spot claimed that senator “surfs every direction on Iraq”.

created by
McCarthy Marcus Hennings

Home to Larry McCarthy, creator of Progress for America Voter Fund’s “Ashley’s Story,” which showed Bush hugging the daughter of a 9/11 victim

corporate clients:
Fox TV, The Washington Post Company

McCarthy Marcus Hennings also created the Willie Horton ad (1988)

this ad was comissioned by

Progress for America/PFA Voter Fund

founded by
Tony Feather

now works for:
Mitt Romney

contracted with
Tom Synhorst

was run by
Chris LaCivita

has worked for:
DCI Group
consults for:
Mercury Public Affairs
was linked to:
Phone jamming (2002)
chris lacivita did consulting for:
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (2004)

 
 

Transcript:

[Music] Female Announcer: John Kerry’s hobby? Windsurfing huh issues dude. He claims to be the big kahuna on terror but votes to cut defense and intelligence. The Patriot Act? Whichever way the wind blows, Kerry rides the wave. And Kerry surfs every direction on Iraq.

Kerry: I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it.

Female Announcer: Windsurfing: hot on water; bad on issues. Total wipeout.

[SFX: chorus “total wipeout”] Progress for America Voter Fund is responsible for the content of this surfin’ message.


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We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

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If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

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