Campaigns

Fighting for national healthcare reform

A Win, Decades in the Making

The Challenge:  Healthcare reform was shaping up to be an epic political battle. Leading progressive advocates in the fight, including MoveOn.org, Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the Progressive Change Committee (PCCC), Campaign for America’s Future and ProgressiveCongress.org couldn’t compete dollar-for-dollar with insurance companies or the drug lobby.

Our Approach:  For 15 months, Fenton designed and executed integrated campaigns for our clients that took advantage of their strengths (MoveOn – online and field, HCAN – political influence, PCCC – insurgent progressive start-up). We took on some of the largest corporate interests in the country, fighting back against the lies and misinformation and maintaining momentum, with the goal of influencing both the President and Congress to pass progressive reforms to address our nation’s failing health care system. We broke through with well-timed surges that combined online advocacy, legislative activity and paid and earned media — seen by both decision makers and activists.

Progress, Accelerated: Fenton secured more than 10,000 media mentions for MoveOn’s healthcare efforts, including a 40 percent increase in local media coverage, got the Progressive Caucus more media attention for their healthcare work in six months than it had received in the previous six years, and positioned start-up PCCC as a player in the debate. NBC News credited our clients for keeping the public option alive for longer than anyone thought possible.

In March 2010, President Obama signed into law a bill that will rein in the insurance companies, lower healthcare costs for the majority of Americans and cover 30 million previously uninsured Americans. The law has been called the greatest domestic achievement since the passage of Medicare.

“[Fenton] has proven to be very effective locally and nationally. The team brought together the creative minds of their ad network, the media strategy of their pr team, to join with the political strategy of our researchers to produce ads that moved our target voters.”

- Richard Kirsch, HCAN National Campaign Manager