by Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Wall Street on Parade
Emails released by WikiLeaks have led to the outing of an elaborate scheme to scour, buff and shine the decades of scandals attached to Hillary and Bill Clinton using the marketing, branding and messaging tricks employed by corporations to resuscitate a stale, discredited or sagging brand. We’ve also learned that at least one of those re-branders, Wendy Clark, had to sign a non-disclosure agreement with the Clinton camp, agreeing not to divulge details of her work. Clark acknowledged that agreement at a recent Fortune Magazine forum.
Clark is widely considered a corporate branding genius, having been responsible for the “Share a Coke” campaign at Coca-Cola which featured folksy names on the side of their cans and bottles. In January of 2015, it was reported that Clark was taking a three-month leave of absence from her demanding and high-level position as President of sparkling brands and strategic marketing in North America for the Coca-Cola Company. On April 6, 2015 a week before Hillary Clinton announced that she was a candidate for President, Coca-Cola announced that Clark was returning to her post at the company. (Clark is now CEO at DDB Worldwide, North America, a global advertising agency.)