I think this pro-Cason mailer that turned up in today’s mail is sort of sleazy.
It is by some Electioneering Communications Organization based in Venice, FL (!) called Citizens United For Future Leaders, represented by one Eric Robinson.
The mailer is clearly designed to create the impression that the University of Miami has endorsed Jim Cason by making it look as if UM is saying “Thank You” to him.
It uses UM colors and the overall design resembles genuine UM printed things I see all the time.
And one side features quotes from Charles Cobb, a leading UM Trustee, and from UM President Donna Shalala.
I’m sure neither Shalala nor Cobb intend these statements to be used as political endorsements.
I wonder who paid for these mailers? I also wonder if they sent them to everyone or just folks with a UM connection? I mean, back in the day, suggesting you were endorsed by UM would have been bad for your chances…
Just to give you a heads-up, regardless of your feelings about his mailer the Mayor’s campaign colors (even going back to his first election bid) have always been green, orange & white. Doubt they have anything to with the University’s colors.
Yes, that’s true, but most of the other mailers have emphasized the green. I’ve saved every mailer I’ve gotten this year, and most of them just have little orange stripes.
This one has much more orange than most, and is set out like UM’s own PR stuff — typeface, layout. Combine that with the quotes, the photo of UM, IMHO I don’t think it is an accident at all.
Not to mention it came on the same day as the other pretty slippery other mailing from the same people, which didn’t have the orange/green color scheme at all (it’s red/white/blue) but is full of slippery statements. Many are true in isolation, but placed in misleading contexts. They leave any but the most canny voter more misinformed than informed.
Looks like green is the predominant color, at least to me. However, as with most mailers, we see what we want to see.
Maybe. Or, if we’re used to getting stuff from UM, maybe we (at first) see what we are used to seeing…
The mailer was not from the “Cason Campaign” but from some group in Venice, FL so the color being tried and true Cason colors isn’t accurate, is it?