The Washington Post has Democracy Dies in Darkness and now CNN has Facts First, the newest slogan for the original cable news network. The news organization unveiled its Facts First advertising campaign on Monday with a promotional video featuring an apple that some people claim is really a banana.
The video has aired on CNN’s television channel and will air on Turner channels, but there are no current plans to buy advertising for the spot, according to a Variety report. The campaign even has a digital presence The apple ad is also the first of the advertising campaign with more videos to follow.
“In recent months, I’ve been approached by many of you suggesting that we do a marketing campaign for CNN,” CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker wrote in a staff memo, “While significant research shows that our brand, despite consistent attacks from Washington and beyond, has never been stronger, we heard you and we agree. In fact, CNN has never been more relevant, and the institution of journalism has never been more important to the national conversation. As a result, we think there is no better time to take a clear stand for who we are and what we believe in. So today we are launching Facts First.”
Zucker also encouraged staffers to share the video and mission statement (below) on their social media accounts with the hashtag, #FactsFirst.
While neither the video nor the statement explicitly mention the Trump Administration, there are clear references. The video makes reference that a person “might put banana in all caps you might even.” In this case, the person would be President Donald Trump and his Twitter account and the banana is a clear allegory for fake news allegations. The mission statement even makes reference to Senior Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway’s infamous “alternative facts” comment, saying “There is no alternative to a fact.”
CNN has been one of President Trump’s top targets, with numerous tweets and public statements deeming them “fake news.” The new advertising campaign also draws note to a line that CNN’s public relations team has used several times on Twitter to correct spin, “Those are the facts.” CNN PR has tweeted that reply to President Trump several times.
CNN is not the only news organization to capitalize on its newfound attention under the Trump Administration. The New York Times ran an ad earlier this year during the Oscars focusing on the matter of truth.
The new mission statement:
Facts are facts.
They aren’t colored by emotion or bias.
They are indisputable.
There is no alternative to a fact.
Facts explain things.
What they are, how they happened.
Facts are not interpretations.
Once facts are established,
opinions can be formed.
And while opinions matter,
they don’t change the facts.
That’s why, at CNN,
we start with the facts first.