Negative Branding

There's a local Chicago radio station that apparently thinks its target audience is made up of lemmings. There are a number of billboards around town for News Talk 560 WIND that don't tell us who their hosts are. They do admit that the format is news talk, but these days that can include any number of things. But what is their big selling point? "Liberals Hate It." That's all. It doesn't matter, I guess, whether anybody else likes it. If liberals hate it, WIND figures that's good enough to drag prospective listeners around by the nose to tune in. And, although hate is a strong word, the station might have a point if it were broadcasting blahblahblahers like Rush and Hannity, but they're both on the higher profile WLS. No, WIND features second- and third-tier wingers such as Hugh Hewitt, Laura Ingraham, Bill Bennett, Michael Savage, and Michael Medved.

This liberal has to admit that I have a hard time working up much more than indifference to this kind of line up. I don't hate it, I just don't want to bother giving it the time of day. But, I'll admit that the first time I saw one of these billboards, curiosity got the better of me and I set the dial on 560 to see what could be so awful. I happened to tune in to Hugh Hewitt, and instead of something I'd hate, I just got a lot of boring blather. Maybe WIND is just setting up a clever ploy to help Chicago remember just where it got its nickname "The Windy City" to begin with.

I've heard that this same campaign has shown up in other cities that have a similar single-A line up of radio stars. Has anyone else seen it? I suppose "Liberals Hate It" is a stronger ad campaign than the more accurate "Liberals Find It Mildly Ridiculous."