Social Media and Campaign 2008: Mr. Huckabee Pulls a Beer Ape

I was having breakfast this morning when I came upon this interesting news item, syndicated in The San Jose Mercury News:

HUCKABEE UNVEILS AD ONLY TO DISAVOW IT

by Michael D. Shear and Perry Bacon Jr.

Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, January 1, 2008; Page A01

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee took an unorthodox gamble in his bid for the presidency Monday, unveiling an attack ad against Republican rival Mitt Romney and then immediately pledging not to run it in the hopes of appealing to the better nature of Iowa voters.

Flanked by posters his campaign produced to question Romney's credibility, Huckabee decried gutter politics in America but then directed the attention of scores of reporters and television cameras to a movie screen, where he played the 30-second hit piece on Romney's honesty and record.

"I pulled the ad. I do not want it to be run at all," he said. But within minutes, the ad was being played on national television and had been posted on blogs and other Web sites -- without costing his campaign a penny.

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Sound familiar?  You may recall the mostly funny Anheuser Busch campaign in the fall of 2006, where the beer company produced an ad so crude that it was "forced" to pull the ad.  The commercial featured an 80s'-style  pool party with a scantily clad ape cavorting with scantily clad women.   The whole thing was a ruse, of course.  Anheuser Busch never aired the original commercial -- but the joke was not quite known before the commercial was viewed widely thoughout the Internet.  The Beer Ape commercial was one of the most popular YouTube videos in November 2006.

I had coffee not too long ago with Robert Scoble, where one of the topics of conversation was the 2008 Presidential campaign.  Robert noted how many of the campaigns have hired some of the smartest social-media strategists and also noted that they have the resources to do some interesting things.  We'll all learn from their experiences this year, he concluded.  He is right -- but my guess is that we'll be learning not only from their successes.  Too early to tell if Huckabee's Beer Ape moment was a smart idea or a flub.  But I can't help but wonder if the Huckabee campaign team clearly thought through the implications.  The Beer Ape may have worked for Anheuser Busch, a company that perhaps could use a dose of hip cynicism to bolster its brand among younger people.  But for a presidential candidate who is trying  to create a brand based on trust -- note that his anti-Romney ad attacks his opponent for being dishonest -- Mr. Huckabee's Beer Ape seems disingenuous, if not just primitive.