Tag Archives: John Fetterman

Could the New TV Spots Attacking TikTok Mean Its Time May Be Running Out?

by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and scrolling through Punchbowl New AM, when I came across this item about two new ad campaigns targeting TikTok for its ties to the Chinese government and its harmful effects on users.

The fight over banning TikTok, long confined to congressional committees, federal boards and online screeds, has now moved to television screens across the country.

Two entities are running ads about the perceived danger of the popular social media app, which is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company.

One spot accuses the platform of promoting eating disorders and “glorifying self-harm.” The other ad says that the Zhang Fuping, the vice president of ByteDance and a member of the Chinese Communist Party, “controls what 170 million Americans think.”

What do you think, Doc – those ads gonna work?

– TikToxic

Dear TT,

Let’s do the math, shall we?

National Review’s James Lynch reports that the two groups – The American Parents Coalition and State Armor Action – will spend roughly $2 million between them on their TikTok knock.

Meanwhile, according to this piece by the Washington Post’s Cristiano Lima-Strong, Jacob Bogage and Aaron Schaffer, “TikTok and ByteDance’s spending on federal lobbying has risen dramatically as scrutiny over their ties to China has grown in Washington. They spent less than $300,000 in 2019 but more than $20 million in the years since, according to a review of federal lobbying disclosure forms.”

Kind of a mismatch, yeah?

Then again, public opinion still counts for something, so maybe these spots will actually break through.

Then again again, the public opinion that matters most might come from the teen and tween children of Congressional members, as Natalie Andrews details in the Wall Street Journal.

WASHINGTON—As members of Congress consider a crackdown on TikTok, many have faced lobbying from some of their most vocal constituents: their own children.

“She was initially up in arms about the whole thing, ‘you can’t do that,’” says Rep. Josh Gottheimer, (D., N.J.) of his daughter.

The 14-year-old was worried her friends would be mad about her dad’s actions. He voted with the majority of the House earlier this month to force TikTok to divest from its Chinese-controlled parent Bytedance or be banned in the U.S.

Now the matter has moved over to the Senate—where lawmakers also have to contend with their in-house critics . . .

Democratic Sen. John Fetterman was headed back to Pennsylvania after the House voted on the legislation when his tween daughter lobbied him.

“I’m driving home and she sent me some texts, and it was ‘please don’t destroy TikTok, I’m going to get bullied,’” he recalls.

The Doc’s diagnosis: We’ll find out soon who’s going to ByteDance to whose tune. And who’s just going to bite.

Stay tuned.

Will John Fetterman Ever Stop Trolling Mehmet Oz in PA’s Senate Race?

by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and reading Frank Bruni’s op-ed in the New York Times, when I came across these paragraphs.

The Fetterman campaign operates in extreme meme mode, trolling Oz in particular for being a New Jerseyan in unpersuasive Pennsylvania drag. It deconstructed the décor in an Oz campaign video to show that he was speaking from a room in his New Jersey manse. It hired the “Jersey Shore” star Nicole (Snooki) Polizzi to beckon Oz home in a video clip that got more than three million views on Twitter.

It followed that inspired mischief with a video in which another recognizable ambassador for New Jersey — the guitarist Steven Van Zandt, who plays in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and had a role in “The Sopranos” — cautions Oz about his Pennsylvania misadventure.

What’s your diagnosis, Doc – is this troll roll working for Fetterman?

– John Betterman

Dear Betterman,

Yeah, the Doc was all over the Snooki troll, not to meantion Fetterman’s petition to have Oz installed in the New Jersey Hall of Fame. The Van Zandt troll is equally inspired.

So what’s next for the Fetterman trollmeisters? Maybe they could resurrect some of the characters memorialized in the New Jersey Turnpike rest areas to help buck up the celebrity pill-pusher.

Maybe Vince Lombardi (“Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing”).

Better yet, how about Walt Whitman (“I celebrate myself, and sing myself/And what I assume you shall assume . . . “).

Like, see you in Jersey November 9th.

Is There Anyone Who’s *Not* Trolling Mehmet Oz Right Now?

by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and tooling around Twitter, when I came across this tweet from longtime NBC journalist Josh Mankiewicz.

Dr. Oz . . . Wizard of Oz . . . Wizard of Lies . . . what’s going on here, Doc?

– Blizzard of Oz

Dear Blizzard,

Yeah, it’s a lot to take in, all this Ozifying.

Start with the viral video Mankiewicz tweeted, which comes from the troll factory Meidas Touch, an outfit that’s all the rage these days.

If that’s the shot, #WizardOfLies is the chaser.

Not everyone, however, thinks Meidas Touch is golden, as Rolling Stone’s Seth Hettena reported last year.

The group spent more than $1 million on an advertising strategy that it calls revolutionary but campaign veterans and independent experts say is nonsensical and a more effective tool for fundraising than for helping Democrats win elections. And despite its promised transparency, MeidasTouch’s financial structure makes a dollar-for-dollar accounting of its spending impossible — and, according to a former Federal Election Commission attorney, raises some of the same legal issues that got the Trump campaign into trouble in 2020.

Regardless, the group is having a moment right now.

As is Pennsylvania Lt. Governor/Democratic U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman, whose campaign against Mr. Oz seems entirely dedicated to trolling the celebrity carpetbagger.

Exhibit A: This video from “Jersey Shore hot mess” Snooki, who assures Oz that the Garden State loves him and he’ll be back there soon.

Exhibit B: This piece in The Independent by Abe Asher.

Senate candidate John Fetterman trolls Dr Oz by trying to get him inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame

John Fetterman is again taking aim at his Pennsylvania Senate rival Mehmet Oz over Mr Oz’s longstanding ties to neighbouring New Jersey.

On Thurdsay, Mr Fetterman launched a petition asking that Mr Oz be inducted into the New Jersey State Hall of Fame — noting that Mr Oz spoke at the hall’s induction ceremony in 2019 and hoped to join the ranks of its honourees one day.

“We all know that Dr Oz is so proud of being Jersey Strong,” Mr Fetterman said in an accompanying video. “He’s a huge New Jersey celebrity who’s lived there for three decades. Clearly he loves his home state. To honor Dr Oz’s deep New Jersey roots, we thought it would be a great idea to start a petition and help him reach his dream.of being inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.”
Oz is doing his best to troll back, as J.D. Prose reported at Penn Live.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz is taking the gloves off when it comes to his opponent’s absence on the campaign trail.

Oz has unleashed a new line of attack on Democrat John Fetterman for laying low following his medical crisis after remaining silent on the situation for several weeks.

Oz’s campaign on Tuesday unveiled the daily “John Fetterman Basement Tracker” to monitor the days Fetterman “has hid in his basement,” according to a campaign press release.

And here it is.

Not bad, but in the end, Oz is no Snooki.