Mike Bloomberg has brought on Andy Stotsky and Kent Alterman, the former presidents of NBCUniversal’s E! and ViacomCBS’s Comedy Central, as campaign advisors, sources close to his presidential campaign said.They and longtime casting director Melissa Chusid are part of a team helping the former New York mayor navigate the worlds of entertainment and pro sports, these sources say.The goal is to get late-night hosts like Jimmy Fallon to work campaign themes into their monologues and get pro athletes to share unpaid pro-Bloomberg messages, the sources said.One source called it “unprecedented” for a presidential candidate to hire so many media executives as advisors.Click here to read more BI Prime stories.
If you hear Stephen Colbert mentioning Mike Bloomberg more often in the coming weeks, it may not be by accident.Mike Bloomberg has already enlisted a who’s who from the worlds of politics, advertising, and technology to help elect him president. Now Bloomberg has brought on former network television executives as advisors. These people are supposed to help develop unpaid relationships with comedians, late-night talk show hosts, and professional athletes, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter.All the sources interviewed for this story are known to Business Insider but spoke on condition of anonymity to protect their professional interests.One source called it “unprecedented” for a presidential candidate to bring on such established media executives as advisors. A fourth source, who has ties to Bloomberg execs and a background in politics and cable news, said the only person to play such a role in previous presidential campaigns was Roger Ailes, the late Fox News founder and consultant to Richard Nixon.This move comes as Bloomberg is reeling from a poor debate performance February 19 in Nevada, accusations of sexism and racism, and a maligned series of paid memes and billboards trolling Donald Trump.
Former executives from NBC, CBS, and Nickelodeon are helping Bloomberg make connections with tastemakers in entertainment and sportsBusiness Insider wasn’t able to learn how many people are involved in the media effort, but confirmed that its recruits include three people:Kent Alterman, former president of ViacomCBS’s Comedy Central; and Adam Stotsky, former president of NBCUniversal’s E!, who are informal campaign advisors;Melissa Chusid, a former Nickelodeon executive who recently worked on talent and casting efforts for Bleacher Report, Kevin Hart’s LOL Network, and other sports and comedy properties.Chusid is leading what the campaign calls a “surrogate team” effort to enlist professional athletes to share pro-Bloomberg messages, according to her LinkedIn profile.The surrogate team recruits top business leaders to publicly support the billionaire. CNBC reported that these surrogates include former executives at financial companies like Morgan Stanley and American Express and the co-founder of BET.The Bloomberg campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Stotsky and Chusid declined to comment, and Alterman could not be reached for comment by press time.
The campaign hopes influential hosts like Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel can shape the narrative in a friendly wayOne person close to the campaign said Stotsky and Alterman were brought on as experts in their fields to “tell Bloomberg what he’s doing wrong.” Another person compared Bloomberg’s media strategy to the 1998 satire “Bullworth,” in which an aging senator played by Warren Beatty re-energizes his campaign by embracing hip-hop culture to appeal to young voters.Alterman and Stotsky have decades in entertainment and comedy. Stotsky, who left NBCUniversal last September after 18 years, expanded E! News and the Kardashians empire. Alterman, who left ViacomCBS in November, maintained close ties to comedians like Colbert, Trevor Noah, and Amy Schumer.The sources said these executives are less concerned with booking appearances on talk shows than making connections with their producers, writers, and talent to get them to talk about Bloomberg the candidate and the issues he’s backing.One person said the advisors want to leverage the political influence that hosts such as Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver, and Stephen Colbert have gained in the past 5-10 years and reach their audiences in a natural way.”Some folks would argue that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert [have been] some of most influential political voices on the planet,” this person said. “It only makes sense to try and utilize those platforms.”
The person added that these efforts have been kept quiet to circumvent FCC fairness doctrine rules that require broadcasters to provide equal airtime to opposing candidates.As for Chusid, she is expected to use her professional athlete contacts to solicit unpaid pro-Bloomberg content, a source said.Bloomberg wants to reach moderate voters who aren’t intensely focused on politicsThe source with ties to Bloomberg executives and a politics and cable news background said he thought the media strategy was aimed at reinforcing the candidate’s paid strategy and help him appeal to moderates and voters who aren’t closely following specific policy proposals or issues like the sexual harassment lawsuits filed by former Bloomberg employees and reported by Business Insider.He added that this behind-the-scenes work, which he described as “crisis comms on steroids,” can help temper negative headlines.Got more information about this story or another ad industry tip? Contact Patrick Coffee on Signal at (347) 563-7289, email at pcoffee@businessinsider.com or patrickcoffee@protonmail.com, or via Twitter DM @PatrickCoffee.
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