Dan Neil, whose day job consists of winning Pulitzer prizes for driving around test tracks in Porsches and Lamborghinis, also writes an advertising column for the LA Times. And he says that in the healthcare war, liberals are getting their asses kicked:
There’s some hope on the horizon, though, in the ad from Americans United for Change….To a kicky bass riff and the occasional cash register ring, the female narrator asks, “Why do the insurance companies and the Republicans want to kill President Obama’s health insurance reform?” Note the yoking of insurance companies to Republicans. Note also that it’s Obama’s health insurance reform. Evil insurance.
The ad then lights into Cigna Corp. CEO Ed Hanway, who is retiring with a $73-million golden parachute. The GOP’s prescription for the healthcare crisis? “Be as rich as Ed and you’ll be happy too.”
Of course it’s disingenuous. Executive compensation at insurance companies is at best peripheral to escalating healthcare costs. For all we know, Hanway may be one of the good guys. The important thing is that the ad hominem ad is pointed, shrewd and manipulative.
Well, watch the ad and decide for yourself. If you ask me, it’s still got too light a touch. And unlike Ezra, I can’t say that I feel especially sorry for Karen Ignani, head lobbyist for the health insurance industry. She’s got a job to do, and she’s doing it. But the reality is that I don’t think the insurance industry has actually conceded all that much during this round in the healthcare wars. They were afraid of getting steamrolled, so they did what they had to do to survive. Nothing more, nothing less.
