Those Wasted UFT Commercials

Does anyone know the cost of the TV commercials the UFT has been running?

A non-UFT member - an activist parent - asked this question.

And followed with:

These commercials, in which a bunch of smiling teachers and students assert that they are unified, ends with UFT President Mulgrew telling how NYC teachers do wonderful things.

Which they do.

But I do not believe that these ads, which must cost tens of thousands of dollars, will convince anyone of that, except their own members.

Of course - these commercials are as much for the membership - it is a UFT election year after all -- as the public.

I think that money could be much better utilized by devoting it to hiring additional parent organizers.

How about teacher organizers and support for schools with awful principals where parents are also affected?

UFT borough parent organizers do wonderful work, but they cannot possibly cover many schools with the frequency that is needed to engage parents in the battle against the dividers and privatizers.

Yes, I know some of these organizers. But among the wonderful work they do, they also are selling the UFT line on common core and testing -- and against opt out. I've witnessed it myself. In essence they are agents among parents of ed deform.

That battle will be won only by engaging parents where they are at.

It will be lost by aping a TV commercial campaign, many of which are useless, as even advertising execs know.

The early retail store magnate John Wanamaker stated: 50 % of the money I spend on advertising is totally wasted; I wish I knew which 50 %.
The UFT doesn’t know either, but gamble in that casino.

 Gamble with our money of course.