Did you listen to Jeb Bush make his announcement yesterday? Did you hear loud cheers from a crowd that seemed excited at the prospect that there could be another Bush as President? Was I the only one confused? I dont know one person who doesnt threaten to leave the Country if its Bush vs Clinton for President again. Cant imagine folks actually excited and cheering for Jeb.It got me wondering, would someone like Jeb, or another candidate thats been struggling like he has, hire a crowd? Pay people to attend their rallies to make them seem like their gaining in popularity? We have seen Hillary Clinton stage appearances, knowing ahead of time the people shed interact with. Would a staged rally be out of the question for a struggling GOP candidate? According to Crowds On Demand, not at all.Crowds on Demand is an American publicity firm. It claims to be the only rent a crowd service, providing its clients with the ability to hire actors to pose as fans. I decided to contact them, pretending to be an employee of a GOP candidate running for office. Their Founder/CEO, Adam Swart, responded. Here is our exchange
Me: I saw your case study on foreign candidates but has your system proven to work in U.S. politics?
Adam Swart:
We have worked with dozens of candidates in the US primarily but not exclusively Republican. Mostly they are candidates who suffer from lack of enthusiasm/turnout at rallies and in need of a game change (sorry, thats a loaded term now!). The candidates have been primarily congressional/senate candidates. Weve only worked with one (serious) presidential candidate thus far. I have found our approach has led to increased poll numbers and, in many case made the margin of victory for a few reasons:
A) Photo-ops at rallies. Having a diverse group of people (race/gender/age) around the candidate is critical especially for those who are constantly followed by reporters but even for those who only get a couple pieces per day.
B) Enthusiastic crowds bring more media attention and shift the narrative onto grassroots supporters. Press always want to understand why people support candidate x or candidate y. Giving them great footage of enthusiastic supporters speaking about their love for the candidate provides great quotations
C) Gives a sense of legitimacy for the candidate among their existing supporters. When they see lots of enthusiastic folks at rallies, they feel like theyre backing the right horse.
D) Bolsters the candidates self-confidence. Some candidates knew about the paid crowds and other times we have been hired by outside organizations. In both cases, seeing more supporters gave them the confidence to up their game on stage.
Me: what reassurances do you offer that the crowd does not leak the fact that they were paid to arrive?
Adam Swart: We have all crowd members sign binding non-disclosure agreements. Our crowd members work for us on a regular basis and understand we value discretion given the sensitive nature of the business. The leak issue has only happened on one occasion over the past three years. (end)
I sent Adam some more questions, but he has not responded. Apparently Im not very good at this undercover stuff.
Adam didnt mention which election cycle he was talking about when he said Weve only worked with one (serious) presidential candidate thus far. However, his website was only founded September, 2012. I cant imagine he was up and running in time to get involved with Romney or Obama before the November election. So one would presume hes talking about this election cycle. But who?
One clue Adam gave us was when he stressed the word serious to describe the Presidential candidate theyve worked with. We dont know how he defines serious when talking about a candidate, but people who dont follow politics too closely, might consider Clinton & Bush to be the only serious candidates, since theyre talked about most by the media.
Regardless of who it is, the fact that this is apparently effective, is sad. As Adam said they feel like theyre backing the right horse. People would rather pick the perceived winner than the person whos best for our country.
At the next Jeb rally, someone should see if Barbara was paid by Crowds on Demand. After all, she did say weve had enough Bushes in the White House. Why suddenly change your mind?$?$
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