TV ads boost Obama health reforms
By Tom Braithwaite in Washington
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
Published: July 17 2009 19:59 | Last updated: July 17 2009 23:44
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/91eadb7a-72fd-11de-ad98-00144feabdc0.html


Harry and Louise have defected. The fictional couple were credited (or blamed) for helping to kill off Bill Clinton’s healthcare reform of 1993 in one of the most famous television campaigns in US politics.

Then, they fretted at the kitchen table in a dystopian vision of government- controlled healthcare – “Having choices we don’t like is no choice at all,” said a mournful Louise.

Now the characters are backing Barack Obama’s health reforms. “A little more co-operation, a little less politics and we can get the job done this time,” says an altogether perkier Louise in the new advertisement.

The present US president, however, cannot take politics out of the equation and on Friday maintained the pressure on Congress to approve legislation that would extend insurance coverage to more than 45m Americans who are uninsured. “Those who are betting against this happening this year are badly mistaken,” he said. “We are going to get this done.”

Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a pro-reform pressure group, is hoping his reviving the TV ads will help. “I think Harry and Louise advertising in support of healthcare reform is the best symbol possible of how different the health reform debate is,” he says. Some $4m has been spent on a three-week run, which he says could be extended.

In a lean year for advertising, with the economic slump curbing spending by companies and the hang over from the presidential election cutting political campaigns, the health debate will provide a tangible fillip.

Not just the changeable Harry and Louise but Democratic campaigns to persuade their own moderate senators to back reform, as well as single-issue groups, are buying advertising, including soft-drinks companies anxious to head off a possible tax on sugar-laden beverages.

“Tell Congress a tax on simple pleasures like juice drinks and soda is the last thing Americans need right now,” intones a male voice over a happy picnic scene.

Yet for all the interest in the return of Harry and Louise, the political environment is different 16 years on and the influence of the campaigns is harder to judge.

One change is that the health industry is less united. “The stakeholders in the healthcare system are all over the map,” says Chip Kahn, who as a lobbyist for private insurers helped dream up Harry and Louise, and who now represents the American Federation of Hospitals.

“We were very concerned that the administration was turning off their hearing-aids to us and we wanted to try to get their attention,” he says of the first campaign.

This time, Mr Kahn’s hospitals group has cut a deal with the Obama administration and is on board with a policy to expand coverage to the uninsured. He predicts that the “advertising bang is going to come from left-of-centre interests” and that it might not be much of a bang.

Concern about the $1,000bn (£611bn) cost of reform, fed by comments this week by Doug Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office, may have more effect than cheerleading campaigns on TV, says Mr Kahn.

Another reason for a more muted impact comes from timing. Evan Tracey, operating chief at Campaign Media Analysis Group, which measures advertising spending, notes that the administration is trying to coerce Congress into a first vote on legislation before the August recess.

Mr Tracey estimates that $40m-$45m is being spent on healthcare advertising in a year that has also attracted advertising on legislation to introduce carbon emissions reductions and bolstering the power of trade unions.

Nevertheless, if Mr Obama’s attempt for a quick victory encounters trouble, then a more febrile fight could start.

“Healthcare has the potential to be one of the biggest ever [political advertising issues] if it were to go all year long,” says Mr Tracey. And if that happens, Harry and Louise may return to the kitchen table once again.