Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Anyone need a job?

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Just wanted to share an email I was forwarded. Can’t make this stuff up.

Hello:

Looking for staff for a Democratic political event tomorrow in Boston!!!

Date: Thursday, September 17th

Time: 12p-4p

Location: TD BankNorth Garden

Rate: $15/hr

Duties: General Event Staff

Please send headshot if intersted

Best,

Katherine Sullivan

On The Mark Promotions, Inc.

306 Dartmouth Street

Boston, MA 02116

(O) 617.437.6801 x 311

(F)  617.437.6802

ksullivan@onthemarkpromotions.com

www.onthemarkpromotions.com

What event could this possibly be?

Hope this is not an indication of things to come.

Please share widely!
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Comments

  1. Did it really say intersted?  Maybe a cut and paste error?

    <

    p>I may make the occasional typo, especially if I’m posting or writing the Dispatch late at night.  But when I’m posting an ad like this, I do use spell check (and proof read).

    • intersted?
      Geez Kate. The typo wouldn’t dissuade me, it’s that head shot.

      <

      p>The website says:

      We are a team of passionate market savvy professionals, who offer a wide variety of talents and experiences in the area of event planning services. On The Mark is committed to providing precision integration and expertly crafted project management to accomplish your objectives. We have a proven track record of success in helping agencies, brands, associations and corporation’s design, develop and activate their marketing, sales and consumer engagement strategies. Whether it’s a single-day, one-off event or a full-year, full-scale, multi-market program, On The Mark will effectively assemble, deploy and manage the resources required to meet your specifications. Our goal is to exceed program objectives by developing strategies that resonate with your core audience.

      <

      p>I’m going to guess they haven’t done many political campaigns.

    • Pagli is taking this whole “buying a Senate seat” a little too literally.  Ambition is fine, but at some point you need actual supporters, not rented actors.  Dollars don’t vote.

      • that they are looking for event staff, not “extras” for the crowd.  Having said that, it’s bad form to ask for headshots for event staff for a political event.  

        • As an employer, I’m under the impression that it’s illegal for me to explicitly use physical appearance as a criteria without some fairly elaborate legal groundwork demonstrating that appearance is, in fact, a necessary part of the job for which the candidate is being considered.

          <

          p>I’ve been told in more than one orientation session that I’m not allowed to, for example, comment on how attractive I find an applicant’s hair, blouse, or scent (regardless of gender). Similar “off-limits” boundaries include marital status, number of children, and (of course) religious preference. It’s been my experience that such constraints have greatly improved the hiring process and the teams that I end up working with and on.

          <

          p>If it is, in fact, truly event staff being recruited, then it sounds like it’s much worse than “bad form”! Am I missing something here?

    • More than buying a seat, I think he’s taking too literally the marketing of a candidate. He probably thinks early(v Ted) Romney’s problem was not a problem with Romney not making a connection with voters personally, it was that he wasn’t marketed right. After all, Pagliuca knew him to be very affable and likable, personally. And he won his next campaign. Right?

      <

      p>So the key to the campaign in Pagliuca’s mind might not be the opposition or the times or an issue here or there, but how everything is marketed.

      <

      p>So he goes to the pros he knows.

      <

      p>Hey, the Celtics now sell out. You think that’s all just because they win? Or because they live in a sports crazy town? Or because the Celtics have such a strong foundation among sports fans here?

  3. And we’ll all get a gaggle of attractive, but uninformed people knocking on our doors. It’s going to be a fun ten weeks!

  5. There’s a long track record of the candidate who spends the most winning.

    <

    p>Of course, there are famous flame-outs by big spenders too.

    <

    p>But in a short race in a primary election, where a sizable chunk of electorate won’t vote (not because they can’t, but because they either won’t or don’t think they’re eligible to vote in a Dem primary), name recognition could win the day over organizing.

    <

    p>Plus, he’s hired a varsity team.

    <

    p>So is he buying talent? Sure.  I’m sure he’ll be paying people a couple bucks per signature to get on the ballot, he’ll hire people to stand at his rallies, he’ll do all that.

    <

    p>But here’s another question: if he’s “right” on all our issues (and I don’t know if he is), shouldn’t his ability to be organized and comprehensive — to say nothing of his track record of succeeding in ventures he’s worked on — a plus for someone who will be the most junior senator in the land?

  7. okay . . .
    . . . seniors in this stack . .
    . . latina nurses go over there . .
    . . megan, could you pass me that pile of union/firefighter types?
    now . . . where are my black college kids?
    wait . . who moved my black college kids, godammit ?!

    • I think I have even less reason to take this dweeb seriously than Khazei who at least has lived here and contributed positively to the community. But this guy is clearly a dweeb trying to buy an election. Can you trust the character of a man who gave more money to Mitt Romney than he has to charity?

      <

      p>That said he seems to have recruited the A-team of local politics so I wouldn’t dismiss him out of hand.

      <

      p>That said he and Khazei will divide the ‘i dont want a politician as my politician’ vote, and arguably divide the ‘I want a Washington outsider to be my Washington insider’ vote with Coakley as well. In any case contrary to Ernie’s Italian bashing prediction that us Dago’s will split the vote, I think this helps Cap more than it hurts him.  

  8. From an article in the Tartan, the daily newspaper Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

    <

    p>    

    While the crowd was indeed diverse, some students at the event questioned the practices of Mrs. Obama’s event coordinators, who handpicked the crowd sitting behind Mrs. Obama. The Tartan’s correspondents observed one event coordinator say to another, “Get me more white people, we need more white people.” To an Asian girl sitting in the back row, one coordinator said, “We’re moving you, sorry. It’s going to look so pretty, though.”

       

    • My (white) daughter, then 11, got a primo front-row seat behind candidate Deval Patrick in a local event during his last campaign because the handlers told me (and her) “we need more children”. The “hand-picking” — in the case I cite and apparently in the case described in the Tartan — involves choosing who is in the likely camera shots. Nobody is asked to leave the event (in contrast to the audience selection done by the prior administration, I might add).

      <

      p>Arranging the demographics of camera shots is, like it or not, part of our media culture. Do you think the demographics of those happy smiling phases that populate the top banner of many commercial websites (see this, this, or this) are random?

      <

      p>In my view, selecting audience members in camera range of a photo op is completely different (and far more acceptable) then explicitly selecting candidates for a paid staff position based on whatever can be learned from a headshot.

      • I just asked, I didn’t give my opinion, yet. I’m not sure I care enough to have one on this issue.

        • I mostly just meant that in my view arranging a photo op falls in a different category than hiring staff members.

          <

          p>I agree with you that is a relatively minor “issue”, aside from its immediate connotations.

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