Nader Hires Ventura's Ad Guru

July 12, 2000 -- Ralph Nader and Gov. Jesse Ventura may not have a lot in common, but now they share an important campaign asset: the same advertising guru.

Nader, the Green Party’s presidential candidate, announced at a press conference in Washington today that he will be working with William Hillsman, the ad man who was a key player in Ventura’s stunning Minnestoa gubernatorial upset in 1998.

“Bill Hillsman has energized the electorate for Jesse Ventura and Paul Wellstone,” Nader told reporters at the National Press Club, adding that Hillsman and his ad firm, North Woods Advertising, are “creative communicators who help bring underdog candidates andcauses to victory.”

Hillsman already produced the introductory video of Nader shown at the Green Party convention in Denver last month, and said he would remind voters of the famed consumer advocate’s populist positions.

“Not all consumers are voters, but all voters are consumers,” said Hillsman.

Nader and Hillsman said they would pursue a strategy of mixing television, radio, and print ads, and would try to use the Web to attract interest as well.

In particular, Hillsman said he would target college campuses as part of an effort to get Nader’s message out to young voters.

“We have a secret plan to make Ralph the sixth member of 'N Sync,” joked Hillsman.

The Underdogs’ Ad ManHillsman is best known for his 1998 work for Ventura, which included an ad portraying Ventura, a former professional wrestler, as an action figure battling the “Evil Special Interest Man.”

However, Hillman’s work with Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone may be a better comparison for what he has to do with the more serious-minded Nader.

In 1990, Hillsman created a series of ads for Wellstone, then a little-known college professor, and helped him unseat the Republican incumbent, Rudy Boschwitz, in a major upset.

One of Wellstone’s ads was a takeoff of the film Roger & Me and depicted Boschwitz as unwilling to confront serious issues.

Nader Gets SeriousToday’s announcement is another sign that Nader, who has received support as high as 6 percent in some polls, is serious about running a full-fledged campaign. Nader was also a presidential candidate in 1996, but put relatively little effort into his candidacy and garnered less than one percent of the vote.

Nader announced today that his campaign has raised more than $1 million, and would be receiving the same amount in matching federal election funds. He added that the campaign has a fund-raising target of $5 million.

And although Nader is currently only on the ballot in 19 states, he said today that he expects to be on the ballot in 45 states by the time the general election rolls around.

Without the kind of money used by the major parties for ad campaigns, Nader and Hillsman said that they would initially target a few key states where Nader has been doing well in the polls, such as California, but then place ads in a few “surprise states” later on.

Taking More from Gore?

Democrats have expressed worries that Nader could hurt the campaign of their presumptive nominee, Vice President Al Gore, by siphoning off liberal support in swing states.

“The majority of people who would be supportive of a Nader would be much more inclined to be for Al Gore than for George Bush,” Gore campaign chairman William Daley told the Associated Press. But Daley also said he believes that citizens ultimately “vote for the one of two people they think will win.”

Today Nader reiterated his belief that the threat he poses to the Democrats is real.

“They’re getting concerned,” Nader told ABCNEWS’ Mark Halperin today, “where for three months they've been telling reporters they're not losing any sleep over this.”

An ABCNEWS/Washington Post poll from June shows Nader at four percent in a four-way race with Gore, Republican contender George W. Bush, and likely Reform Party nominee Patrick J. Buchanan. Roughly two-thirds of Nader’s support came from Gore backers, and one-third from Bush supporters. ABCNEWS’ Garrett M. Graff in Washington and the Associated Press contributed to this report.