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Few would dare question the influence of Jon Bon Jovi. The New Jersey born singer has a history of drawing a crowd. Now he's using that clout to help relieve what's left of Hillary Rodham Clinton's $13.1 million presidential campaign debt.

The Associated Press reported that Bon Jovi plans to take the stage at New York's Town Hall January 15 for "a final evening in support of Hillary Clinton for President Debt Relief." The tickets, priced between $75 and $1,000, will go toward Clinton's remaining $6.3 million in personal loans. Time, after all, is running out for the New York senator to solicit contributions. Once she is confirmed as secretary of state in President-elect Barack Obama's administration, ethics rules prohibit her from this sort of fund-raising. —Michael O'Connell

Hillary Rodham Clinton, Jon Bon Jovi, Election '08

NEWS 11.25.08 2:33 PM

More Inauguration Plans Fall Into Place, Alma Powell Declares "Times Too Serious" for Parties

Washington socialites Buffy Cafritz and Ann Jordan will once again be co-hosting an inaugural party at the recently renamed Fairfax at Embassy Row (formerly the Westin Embassy Row), WWD.com reported yesterday. The Cafritz-Jordan fete is expected to reel in some 250 guests and will be produced by Carolyn Peachey of Campell Peachey and Associates. The duo announced their plans at a reopening reception for the hotel's Jockey Club restaurant last week, where guests like Colin Powell's wife, Alma, and former Reagan chief of staff Ken Duberstein speculated on how the inaugural festivities would unfold.

"You’ll see a renaissance of people coming back to the White House, even with a difficult economy, because people want our president to shine,” said Duberstein. But Powell countered, saying, “I don’t expect there to be more parties. The times are too serious to have parties. That would be frivolous.” MORE >>

Inauguration 2009, Election '08, Buffy Cafritz, Ann Jordan, Huffington Post, Oprah, Google, Embassy of Kuwait

BEST OF 2008 11.24.08 8:00 AM

Campaign Crusader

Yosi Sergant
Photo: Darius Twin

In February, publicist Yosi Sergant helped launch a campaign movement for Barack Obama that was so successful the promotional material inspired knockoffs, spread virally on social networking sites, and traveled to Europe. Sergant, a publicist with Evolutionary Media Group who had also worked as California media adviser to the Obama team, decided to leave his ofﬁcial campaign post to volunteer his PR services. “I wanted the freedom of developing strategies without submitting them up the ladder,” he says. As a volunteer, Sergant helped promote the candidate through what has become one of the most iconic images associated with the campaign—the Andy Warhol-like Obama graphic by street artist Shepard Fairey.

Art History: Sergant ﬁrst talked to Fairey about contributing to the Democratic candidate’s efforts at an Adidas party. The next day Fairey emailed his design, and Sergant went on to deliver the image to his network of media contacts and coordinate the strategic placement of the posters in front of cameras at Obama rallies, as well as in multiple cities to coincide with local primaries. Sergant has tracked several thousand domestic and international media impressions featuring the image, including an appearance on the front page of The New York Times, more than 10 inclusions in The Los Angeles Times, and coverage in magazines that typically refrain from running political news, like Juxtapoz and Urb. MORE >>

Barack Obama, Election '08

NEWS 11.17.08 11:50 AM

D.C. Officials Predicting 1.5 Million Inauguration Attendees

The expected crowd for the January 20 public inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama is already at 1.5 million, and Washington tourism officials are doing what they can to encourage that number, despite the scant availability of tickets to the ceremony. The potential for a four-day weekend (given that Inauguration Day falls immediately after the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday) and the town’s relatively mild winters mean the inauguration and related events will likely bring an economic boom to the city.

According to The Chicago Sun-Times, capitol tourism agency Destination D.C. advises inauguration-goers that hotel rooms are still available but booking may require a bit of savvy. Many D.C. hotels require a three- to four-night minimum stay, so room searches for anything less might appear as fully booked. MORE >>

Election '08, Barack Obama, Presidential Inauguration

NEWS 11.10.08 11:02 AM

Starbucks Steals Some Election Day Coverage With Last-Minute Promotion

Starbucks was able to leverage serious traction from its latest guerrilla-marketing stunt. Advertising Age reports today that the coffee chain’s last-minute Election Day promotion, offering free coffee to customers who voted or just asked for it, brought the brand some of its best publicity in quite a while.

The company declined to comment on how many cups were given away or how much was spent, but industry experts and former Starbucks insiders place the cost of the minimal ad campaign and the product giveaway at under $1 million—a small price to pay for a chunk of coverage on a day when at least 71 million Americans tune into the news. The initiative prompted the chain's positive buzz rating to more than double from 25 percent to 51 percent, according to Brand Index. MORE >>

Starbucks, Election '08

NEWS 11.07.08 11:32 AM

30 Trolleys and 1,400 American Flags: More Details From Obama's Rally

FROM CHICAGO Before Tuesday's election night rally, the Obama campaign asked associated vendors not to speak to the press about the evening's logistics. "But now that it's over, we can talk all day," said John Curran, vice president of charter sales and marketing for Chicago Trolley and Double Decker Company. And while the Obama camp prepares for its transition to the White House, rally vendors have been sharing more details.

Curran said that Chicago Trolley's task on Tuesday night was to work in conjunction with the Secret Service to safely transport V.I.P. guests—Brad Pitt, Spike Lee, and Rahm Emanuel (now set to be the president-elect's chief of staff) among them—to Grant Park from the nearby Fairmont Chicago and Hyatt Regency hotels. MORE >>

Barack Obama, Election '08, Brad Pitt, Spike Lee, Rahm Emanuel

NEWS 11.05.08 5:55 PM

How Will the Passage of California's Proposition 8 Impact the Event Industry?

FROM LOS ANGELES On Tuesday, the majority of California voters punched their ballots in favor of Proposition 8, a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Earlier in the year, the Williams Institute at UCLA conducted a study suggesting legal gay marriages could result in millions of revenue dollars over the next three years throughout the financially bereft state. So what now for Los Angeles County, where voting was split right down the middle, leaning only by a fraction of a percent in favor of the measure?

"I don't think it will have that much of an impact. The special event industry has more to worry about with the economic slowdown than with the passage of Prop 8," Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation senior vice president and chief economist Jack Kyser said today. "It's interesting because there were a lot of people expecting great big elaborate wedding ceremonies [when same-sex unions were legalized], but the ones I heard about were relatively low-key." MORE >>

Gay Marriage Laws, Proposition 8, Election '08, Budgets

NEWS 11.05.08 1:22 PM

Crowds Celebrate Election Night Across U.S. With Sing-Alongs, Cupcake Fights, and Surprisingly Orderly Conduct

Rockefeller Plaza on election night
Photo: Alison Whittington for BizBash

The morning after the election, media outlets across the country (including our own domestic bureaus) took a census of the countless political celebrations from last night. Here's a look:

As thousands lined up for Obama's rally in Grant Park—where most watched his speech on a JumboTron—local caterer Limelight served mini BLTs to 3,000 guests in the tents for media, campaign officials, and donors. [BizBashChicago]
While NBC and Fox News wooed New Yorkers to festivities outside their headquarters, Slate and washingtonpost.com served advertisers food from Obama- and McCain-inspired food stations at opposite sides of their party. [BizBashNY]
The California Democratic Party's bash filled every available space at the Century City Hyatt. More than 17,000 people RSVPed online; 7,000 is the capacity for the hotel's public spaces. [BizBashLA]
In Washington the Hyatt served—surprise!—an all-American menu for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Qorvis Communications set up photo ops with wax figures of Obama and George W. Bush in its offices. [BizBashDC]
The Chicago Tribune reported that Obama's Grant Park crowds dissipated quickly with "no reported problems." [ChicagoTrib]
CNN brought back its convention season “CNN Grill” to New York’s Time Warner Center for a celebrity-filled party and venue for political bloggers. [Variety]

MORE >>

Election '08

NEWS 11.05.08 12:23 PM

Politicos and Media Outlets Celebrate Election Night With Outdoor Events and Candidate-Inspired Food

A victorious donkey in Rockefeller Plaza
Photo: Alison Whittington for BizBash

The election may finally be over, but most New Yorkers are just starting to sober up to the reality of a new administration—and from all of the election viewing parties held throughout the city last night. Outdoor broadcasts from major networks NBC, ABC, and Fox News all turned into massive public events, while political organizations like the New York Young Republicans, the New York Democratic Committee, and Congressman Charles Rangel all held partisan rallies to watch the returns. Media outlets like The Washington Post, Slate, The New York Times, Glamour, and GQ even joined the celebrations with private and ticketed events set up in bars, restaurants, and other venues.

Based on crowd size alone, NBC News and MSNBC probably win for biggest party. The networks saturated their Rockefeller Plaza headquarters with red, white, blue, and NBC’s signature peacocks. Sponsor Liberty Mutual placed booths throughout the space where the throngs of onlookers to relax, while people dressed as elephants and donkeys posed for photos. The expectant crowd watched the blue and red banners race up the General Electric building towards the key 270 votes, and a full map of the United States displayed on the skating rink colored states red or blue when NBC News officially called them for either Obama or McCain. MORE >>

Election '08, The Washington Post, Slate Magazine, ABC, NBC, Fox News

NEWS 11.05.08 12:06 PM

Grant Park Rally Sees Lines, a JumboTron, and Camaraderie Among Vendors

Obama's Grant Park rally
Photo: Anthony Jacobs/Getty Images

FROM CHICAGO Lines stretched for seemingly endless blocks outside Grant Park last night as rally attendees waited to hear Barack Obama speak. "Well, I'll see a speck and call it a president," said one woman, taking her crowded surroundings into account.

Though some guests found standing room close to the stage where Obama spoke—television coverage showed Oprah Winfrey and Reverend Jesse Jackson there—catching a glimpse of the next president proved difficult in much of the tightly packed park. Instead, most attendees trained their eyes on a giant JumboTron stationed at the southern end of Hutchinson Field, which C3 Presents erected to broadcast news from CNN throughout the evening and showcase Obama's speech. MORE >>

Barack Obama, Election '08, Oprah Winfrey

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