2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumKoch brothers look to rebrand in national ad campaign
Charles and David Koch are no strangers to Wisconsinites. It was three years ago that the Buffalo Beast's Ian Murphy pulled off the mother of all prank phone calls by ringing up Gov. Scott Walker while posing as David Koch, and we've been getting a steady dose of news about the billionaire brothers' political doings ever since.
But the rest of the country is catching up. Even though neither one has been on a ballot since David Koch was a Libertarian vice presidential candidate in 1980, polling shows that 48 percent of Americans recognize their names, according to U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who backs a plan to attack the conservative donors ahead of the mid-term elections.
Some might say that Democrats are late to the party. The Kochs have for years been targeted as Public Enemies No. 1 and 2 by film makers, liberal watchdog groups, and just about everyone else on the left.
Now the brothers, together reportedly worth about $80 billion, are looking to soften their brand by running a national ad campaign that focuses not on their politics, but on the inherent goodness of their mega-congomlerate Koch Industries, which last year raked in $115 billion in revenue. The ads have recently begun airing in the Madison market.
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/writers/steven_elbow/koch-brothers-look-to-rebrand-in-national-ad-campaign/article_ef004fa3-8f87-5226-ba15-b7ca41db1629.html
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Agent Orange Company--Meet the Orange Jumpsuit Bros!
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)down in the cincinnati or dayton viewing market. They mention Koch Industries, tout the 60k jobs, but avoid specifically naming the consumer brands people might actually recognize. At a guess, they're worried that if people find out those ARE Koch brands, they'll start losing sales.
Frustratedlady
(16,254 posts)I'm looking for carpet now and need to find the names of carpet they make. I forget.
neeksgeek
(1,216 posts)A couple nights ago. I'm in the Charlotte, NC market. Just made me want to barf, quite frankly. Pure propaganda.
What it really did was remind me 1) why I no longer watch Nova on PBS and 2) that I really need to find out all of their brand names so I can update my boycott list.
TheJames
(120 posts)Apparently, there is a smartphone app that reads barcodes and identifies the products of Koch owned companies, specifically to facilitate a boycott.