Mediapsssst at MediaPost recently spotlighted Stagwell Chairman and CEO Mark Penn’s political ties, notably to No Labels, an organization where Penn’s wife is the Founder and CEO. To complicate matters, No Labels utilizes insight and data from The Harris Poll, a subsidiary of Stagwell.
Not sure why anyone would be surprised by the revelations, given Penn’s background as a pollster, political strategist, and lobbyist is public knowledge.
Yet it does raise questions around the true DEIBA+ commitment and dedication of an advertising enterprise reflecting—and professionally supporting—the political platforms of former President Donald Trump. Clearly, Stagwell has the cunning capabilities to take performative PR to the highest level.
Mark Penn, No Labels And The 2024 Election
By Richard Whitman, Columnist
It was about a month ago that the Lincoln Project issued a statement about what it called No Labels’ “idiotic decision” to continue looking for a slate of candidates to put up in November’s presidential election.
Well idiotic or not, the so-called “unity” group announced today an about face, abandoning the effort to put up a ticket. Apparently it couldn’t find anyone with an iota of credibility to accept the challenge.
The LP statement concluded that “A vote for No Labels is a vote for Donald Trump. Nancy Jacobson and Mark Penn’s plan is clear: help Donald Trump win a second term.”
Nancy Jacobson is CEO of No Labels and her husband Mark Penn is founder and CEO of Stagwell, the advertising and marketing holding group. It does market research and political polling through its subsidiary Harris Poll.
Penn has denied any and all connection to his wife’s organization “real or imagined,” as he told the New Republic last summer. That didn’t stop the publication from talking to a number of democrats who were a bit skeptical.
Democratic strategist Joe Trippi suggested that No Labels’ conclusion that its potential ticket could have a chance at winning was based on a Harris poll that it could win Biden’s home state of Delaware.
“And what’s it all based on?” Trippi was quoted as saying. “It’s all based on the polling and the interviews of Mark Penn. That’s it. Other than that, there’s no other polls that show this. None.”
The article also reports that Penn has opined, based on Harris polls that Trump would beat Biden in a rematch given the state of the economy, immigration and crime.
Hmmm, I thought the economy was doing relatively well, despite all the doom-and-gloomers who have been predicting a recession for the last two years.
Despite problems at the border, immigration isn’t the “blood bath” that Trump claims it to be.
And while Trump said the other day that crime statistics are going up in this country, preliminary FBI statistics for 2023 suggest otherwise.
But as the politically astute Penn knows, perception counts a lot more in politics than reality.
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