Look no further than a new addition to the company’s own web site – a thinly-veiled whitewashing of the ol’ corporate image called “Clear Channel Cares.”
According to the site, Clear Channel is launching a publicity campaign to promote just how it contributes to the communities it does business in. The campaign is running on the company’s radio stations and outdoor billboards (Clear Channel is the largest single owner of radio stations and billboards in America).
“Clear Channel Cares” is pathetic beyond description. Honest to God, I almost puked after downloading their national radio spot. The site also features “localized audio” – spots providing examples of Clear Channel’s community spirit in a whopping nine markets. For a 1,200+ station conglomerate, you think they could’ve tried a bit harder.
The billboard side of the campaign is even more laughable: “Working to give local heroes a voice, a stage and a victory!” Overlooking the fact that the statement is grammatically incorrect (missing serial comma)…what the f*ck does that mean?
Remember, of course, that this bout of goodwill propaganda essentially costs the company nothing, as it owns all of the outlets of self-promotion.
Clear Channel’s spin machine has also descended on Washington, D.C. The company’s newly-established lobbying office has been working Capitol Hill incredibly hard, and as a result a member of Clear Channel’s executive suite will be the featured guest at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on January 30. Odds are that either CEO Lowry “Papa” Mays or President/COO Mark “Big Brother” Mays will represent the company; there are conflicting reports on which one will take the hot seat.
The hearing is ostensibly being called to give senators a chance to grill the media behemoth on the negative effects of radio consolidation, but Mays is whipping up quite a whopper about how Clear Channel is a giant in the information industry, yes, but it’s woefully misunderstood. Be on the lookout for highly inflated statistic-bandying and a firm but non-threatening attitude.
(Seriously, though, the company needs proofreaders. Check Mark Mays’ bio and chuckle at the mangled words/sentences. I’m glad to know that Mays “sets strategic direction and strategy” for the company. Also, is “unduplicatable” a real word? Jesus H. Christ, with the several hundred million dollars of profit cleared last year you’d think they could afford some remedial English tutoring.)
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