AARP's Novelli founded outfit that did the Harry & Louis propaganda.

[TacticalPeek]

Atrios at Eschaton found this:

Harry and Louise

Challenge
Threatened with a measure that would severly impact their industry - what seemed like certain passage of President Clinton's health care proposal in 1994, HIAA hired GCPN to so something notoriously difficult: get the attention of elected officials when there was no election in sight.

Insights
Positioning "Harry and Louise," an average American couple, to speak "for" not "to" the American people, we created a campaign that highlighted the public's concerns about the Clinton plan.

Ideas
Managing the key components of the campaign -- paid media, earned media, grassroots outreach and coalition building -- GCPN worked closely with representatives from HIAA staff and member companies to ensure that the campaign's lobbying effort and media execution were coordinated, complementary and in tune with the campaign's overall plan.

Impact
"Harry and Louise" prompted 500,000 calls to our 800 number, turned 50,000 of those callers into activists and resulted in one-quarter million contacts with members of Congress. The campaign is widely credited as being a key factor in defeating the Clinton plan.

Link


Even though he 'left' in 1990, this is just TOOOOO weird!

edit - or should that be tooooo wired?

[onecitizen]

1. I've always said the repukes.......

will over-reach and do themselves in. This may be it. Call ins tonight on Cspan are the angriest I've ever heard and people who say they're repukes are saying NO LONGER!! I love it.

Sorry. I know this is a bit off topic for your post but I am so glad to hear people saying what they're saying tonight about this Medicare Bill and the Repukes.

[Momof1]

2. Yes, I've been listening too. They ain't happy eom

[Gloria]

3. I KNEW IT! When I saw the AARP ad for the first time and posted here

my comment "MOVE OVER HARRY AND LOUISE"....knowing that this goon was in PR it made a whole lot of sense...

ANd I also asked, When do the union ads against this bill go on??
Someone said on Thursday or Friday....

Has anybody seen any???


I hope this whole thing turns into "Catastrophic Coverage II" --passed but repealed because people were so pissed.....

[peacetalksforall]

4. The AARP takeover is a perfect and prime example of the agenda

to infiltrate, buy-out, bribe, take over every institution and eliminate others (unions), plus steal money and rights along the way. This is not an exaggertion. This is finally becoming more recognizable to more people. So far, it has been a takeover and collobaration with corporations or the extablishment of custom designed corporations to match agenda.

Then, we will see a complete take over of all judgeships, legal positions, civic jobs. Then, owners of multiple, high powered guns will be the posse and bounty hungers and enforcers of patriotism.

Just read any of the authors of the PNAC code and any of the authors who taught them.

The Dem leaders are the key people here - they have to either tell us they are with us or against us, i.e., they are going to put on their helments to stop the madneww or they have to tell us that they are joining with the right wing - just as the leaders of the AARP did.

[Lars39]

5. This is why I'm worried about the ACLU.

Bob Barr and that other repug(cannot think of his name) are working for ACLU. I don't trust them. :scared:

[Jacobin]

7. but but but, HOW could that be true????

[flpoljunkie]

8. Thanks for posting this, Jacobin.

It really says it all, doesn't it?

[Mel]

6. just heard on the House of Rep floor

they know Novelli was behind those Harry and Louise ads!! Congresswoman from New York(sorry don't have her name) just brought it up minutes ago and I came here looking to see if you guys had heard it. I figured the DU'ers where on it and already knew!

[1songbird]

9. OMG! What a scandal

How the hell did this guy get to be president of AARP

[David Zephyr]

10. Kicking This Up to Where It Belongs.

:kick:

[TacticalPeek]

11. Interesting (selected) comments at Atrios' site.

Eschaton

One of the pillar organizations for health care and senior issues advocacy has been taken over by the guy whose company did "Harry and Louise", an A-list evidoer, and we are finding this out at the moment of truth for the future of Medicare in the congress?

Isn't there someone at the DNC whose job it is to keep an eye on these things?

Imagine if Brady Bill II were winding through Congress, and the NRA endorses the measure. "It's a bad bill but it could be even worse..." The day before voting they google their Chairperson's name "Michael Moore" and low and behold, that's that guy that made the Bowling for Columbine movie...holy shit!

Why am I in this party? What the hell is wrong with me? Sign me up for the GOP. Those guys are on a completely different level. I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords...
wetzel | Email | 11.21.03 - 4:28 pm | #



The Democrats should do a new Harry and Louise commercial. A little update. Louise lost her Enron two years ago, and since the couple was enrolled in the company's health plan, they lost coverage after her COBRA ran out. Harry had a stroke, no coverage because he doesn't yet qualify for Medicaire, and they're home is being foreclosed upon by their bank.

"Harry, what are we going to do? Everything we've worked for is gone!"

(fade out as Harry mumbles something)
scribeboy | 11.21.03 - 6:30 pm | #


use this handy form to tell Novelli it is time to resign:

http://www.aarp.org/contactaarp/Articles/a2003-01-28-contact-generalform.html
56k | Homepage | 11.21.03 - 7:12 pm | #

use this handy form to register a couteous dissent with the Phameceutical Manufacturer's Assn :

http://www.phrma.org/whoweare/contact.cfm
56k | Homepage | 11.21.03 - 7:18 pm | #



If you go to the Porter-Novelli website, take a look at the list of clients, under case histories: in addition to scuttling health care reform, they've done PR for air pollution, dioxin production, global warming, "tort reform" and polyvinyl chloride.

If Lord Voldemort wanted to improve his public image, he'd probably have Porter-Novelli design a campaign.
Mitch | Email | 11.21.03 - 7:56 pm | #


This 1999 google-cached article criticizing the "Harry and Louise" campaign has been deleted from the AARP site.

http://216.239.37.104/search?q=cache:ZzZu1xmkmoEJ:www.aarp.org/bulletin/oct99/ads.html+novelli+aarp+%22harry+and+louise%22&hl=en&ie=UTF">Harry and Louise @ AARP
snow-moon | Homepage | 11.21.03 - 8:21 pm | #

[dusty64]

12. Very interesting.

:kick: