
Senior Adviser to the President Ivanka Trump attends a meeting on small business relief in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on April 7, 2020. (Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
Amid Pandemic and Recession, Ivanka Trump-Led #FindSomethingNew Campaign Denounced as 'Stunningly Tone Deaf'
"Holy shit, this can't be real."
A White House initiative to compel American workers to find different jobs as the coronavirus pandemic rages and millions are out of work is under fire for what critics are describing as a thoughtless tagline: "Find something new."
"Just a stunningly tone deaf campaign," pollster and liberal activist Matt McDermott said on Twitter.
As the Associated Press reported, the ad campaign is the brainchild of the White House's American Workforce Policy Advisory Board. The panel was created by President Donald Trump in 2018 and is chaired by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and the president's daughter, senior White House advisor Ivanka Trump.
"We are in good hands," journalist Dave Anthony tweeted sarcastically.
According to AP:
The initial 30-second spot features ordinary people talking about their experiences with career challenges and transitions. Among them are a fitness instructor who completed an apprenticeship program and became a welder after her gym went under, and a man who lost his job twice in one year, took online certification courses and now works as a tech consultant.
The campaign is backed by Apple CEO Tim Cook and IBM Chairman Ginni Rometty, as well as the Ad Council and other business leaders, Bloomberg reported.
Numerous studies suggest that millions of jobs lost during the economic crisis sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic are never coming back, leaving the "something new" in the campaign's tagline in doubt.
Activist Holly Figueroa O'Reilly was bemused at the callousness of the campaign's message.
"Holy shit," tweeted O'Reilly, "this can't be real."
Urgent. It's never been this bad.
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission from the outset was simple. To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It’s never been this bad out there. And it’s never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed and doing some of its best and most important work, the threats we face are intensifying. Right now, with just four days to go in our Spring Campaign, we are not even halfway to our goal. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Can you make a gift right now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? There is no backup plan or rainy day fund. There is only you. —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
A White House initiative to compel American workers to find different jobs as the coronavirus pandemic rages and millions are out of work is under fire for what critics are describing as a thoughtless tagline: "Find something new."
"Just a stunningly tone deaf campaign," pollster and liberal activist Matt McDermott said on Twitter.
As the Associated Press reported, the ad campaign is the brainchild of the White House's American Workforce Policy Advisory Board. The panel was created by President Donald Trump in 2018 and is chaired by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and the president's daughter, senior White House advisor Ivanka Trump.
"We are in good hands," journalist Dave Anthony tweeted sarcastically.
According to AP:
The initial 30-second spot features ordinary people talking about their experiences with career challenges and transitions. Among them are a fitness instructor who completed an apprenticeship program and became a welder after her gym went under, and a man who lost his job twice in one year, took online certification courses and now works as a tech consultant.
The campaign is backed by Apple CEO Tim Cook and IBM Chairman Ginni Rometty, as well as the Ad Council and other business leaders, Bloomberg reported.
Numerous studies suggest that millions of jobs lost during the economic crisis sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic are never coming back, leaving the "something new" in the campaign's tagline in doubt.
Activist Holly Figueroa O'Reilly was bemused at the callousness of the campaign's message.
"Holy shit," tweeted O'Reilly, "this can't be real."
A White House initiative to compel American workers to find different jobs as the coronavirus pandemic rages and millions are out of work is under fire for what critics are describing as a thoughtless tagline: "Find something new."
"Just a stunningly tone deaf campaign," pollster and liberal activist Matt McDermott said on Twitter.
As the Associated Press reported, the ad campaign is the brainchild of the White House's American Workforce Policy Advisory Board. The panel was created by President Donald Trump in 2018 and is chaired by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and the president's daughter, senior White House advisor Ivanka Trump.
"We are in good hands," journalist Dave Anthony tweeted sarcastically.
According to AP:
The initial 30-second spot features ordinary people talking about their experiences with career challenges and transitions. Among them are a fitness instructor who completed an apprenticeship program and became a welder after her gym went under, and a man who lost his job twice in one year, took online certification courses and now works as a tech consultant.
The campaign is backed by Apple CEO Tim Cook and IBM Chairman Ginni Rometty, as well as the Ad Council and other business leaders, Bloomberg reported.
Numerous studies suggest that millions of jobs lost during the economic crisis sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic are never coming back, leaving the "something new" in the campaign's tagline in doubt.
Activist Holly Figueroa O'Reilly was bemused at the callousness of the campaign's message.
"Holy shit," tweeted O'Reilly, "this can't be real."

