Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush has officially jumped the shark.
Going from desperate legacy presidential contender to laughing stock is actually a tough accomplishment.
It takes effort to fail so badly.
Somehow, Jeb Bush and the controllers of his political action committee, Right to Rise, have managed to pull it off by purchasing the most expensive air time of the year . . . a commercial spot in the Super Bowl.
To add insult to injury, the super PAC claims that the money to purchase the $320,000 slot was raised through “crowdfunding.”
Crowdfunding is traditionally used to raise money for a product or idea through social media or crowdfunding sites. The contributions or purchases from supporters are typically $25 to a hundred dollars.
In the case of Right to Rise, they had 506 donors step up for an average gift of $632.
That’s not crowdfunding, that’s selling influence.
Right to Rise’s donors and even PAC insiders include former ambassadors who may be looking for another stint in the establishment limelight, along with corporate board members and even the chairman of an energy and investment company, Ray Hunt of Hunt Consolidated.
Jeb Bush, his consultants, and media buyer are taking the wealthy on a wildly expensive ride to the dustbin of history.
The super PAC’s media buyer, the newly formed Oath Strategies, has been paid a whopping $39 million as of November of 2015.
While Right to Rise’s defenders and treasurer have said that they are getting great deals from Oath Strategies, it’s a tough argument for those who know the ins and outs of media buying.
Typically large agencies use the combined buying power of all of their clients to knock down rates.
Oath Strategies appears to have been formed to take on only one client, Right to Rise, and is a spin-off of another agency that logged under a million in revenue in the past, according to online reports.
Commissions in the advertising word are traditionally 16% of the advertising purchase. Even at 5%, a media buyer with very low overhead, is walking away with a nearly $2 million windfall off of a failed strategy.
If Jeb Bush got a shot at running the country, financial disaster would be a certainty based upon the lavish and ineffectual spending of his campaign and PAC.
And here’s the Super Bowl commercial ran by Right to Rise . . . which is about as boring as last night’s game:
