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This issue:
* This is Your Brain on Drugs:  Yes, I Have Questions
* Industry Insights: Mecklermedia
* Review: PoliticsOnline
* Hoffman Spam Index
* Summation Push Picks Links

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This is Your Brain on Drugs
Yes, I Have Questions

By Auren Hoffman

Last week, President Clinton made a speech to the United Nations outlining his program for drug prevention.  His main plan is to spend $2 billion on an advertising campaign aimed at children to prevent drugs.

President Clinton wants ads like "This is your brains on drugs -- any questions?" and "Just Say No" to make a comeback.  Maybe we can make a commercial of Bob Dole shouting "Just Don't Do It" (sponsored by Visa, of course).  On the face of it, this seems like a something one would definitely support.  Targeted ads have been proven to prevent to prevent drugs in kids.

But then I got to thinking --  Two billion dollars!  That's a lot of cash.  

Shouldn't our White House tandem be reinventing government rather than finding ways to spend our surplus? 

Let's follow the Hoffman Plan to drug advertising:

Spend some money on advertising.  $100 million can mount a heck of an Internet campaign.

One call from President Clinton to Michael Jordan is all that it takes to get the message "Drugs are for Losers" imprinted in every Nike sneaker.  Seeing that message in your shoes every morning would be more effective then a 100 frying eggs.

A call from FCC Chairman Will Kennard to Yahoo CEO Tim Koogle could procure three million free banner ads from the search site's surplus.

Veep Gore could make calls to Pepsi, Coke, and others to get the message "Don't Do Drugs" imprinted in bottle caps.

Though government's  first inclination is always to spend money, the tremendous influence our leaders possess could lead to a significant cost savings with little effort.

SUMMATION: Clinton could save taxpayers some money and decrease drug use by shaking down corporations to support the war on drugs (rather than shaking them down for campaign contributions).

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Industry Insights: Mecklermedia

As Mecklermedia expands, look for this little company (180 employees) start to get noticed fast.

(all rumors and insights sent to auren@summation.net will be kept confidential)

NOTE:  Another thing I got dinged for was Infoseek.  I declared them in last place in a recent Summation Push.  Of course, that was before the Disney deal.   Now they'll be big.  Who's going to be the next big player?  My bet is on News Corp.

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Review: PoliticsOnline

After last Summation Push's review of Jeb Bush's web site (www.job.org) I got bombarded with e-mails with other suggestions.  I'm sorry to say that most of the suggestions were pretty bad.

One site, though not a candidate site, stood out: PoliticsOnline (http://politicsonline.com/news/).  If you can overcome their exceedingly liberal bent, you might find a treasure chest of information.  I encourage you to check it out and, as always, I encourage your feedback.

(All rumors and insights sent to auren@summation.net will be kept confidential)

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HOFFMAN SPAM INDEX:

Check out what's happening with Spam at:
http://www.summation.net/spam.html

The Hoffman Spam Index is updated weekly.

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Summation Push Picks Links:

Past Summations