Bill Hillsman, the man behind the creative award-winning campaign ads for U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone and Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, will speak at Carleton College's Friday Convocation on Feb. 26, 1999, at 10:50 a.m. in Skinner Memorial Chapel. He will discuss the influence of money and the media on the political process, and how the growing partisanship of the major parties is driving voters away from participating in the election process.
On Thursday, Feb. 25, at 7 p.m. in the main lobby of Carleton's Gould Memorial Library, Hillsman will give a gallery talk in conjunction with an exhibit of his work in advertising. The exhibit will be on display in the Library beginning on Monday, Feb. 15, and will showcase examples of Hillsman's magazine and newspaper ads, scripts from his radio and television spots, and a video clip of several television ads. Both events are free and open to the public.
Hillsman is a veteran of more than 20 years in the advertising business at major regional and national ad agencies. A graduate of Carleton College and Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, he is currently president and creative director of North Woods Advertising, a marketing
communications and political consulting firm based in Minneapolis.
Accomplished in the areas of sports marketing, crisis marketing and retail advertising, Hillsman has gained national recognition in the grass roots political arena, where he seems particularly able to rise to a challenge. He joined the Ventura campaign late in the game, and hopes Ventura's stunning victory using quirky commercials on a shoestring budget of $400,000 will force political consultants to rethink traditional campaign strategies.
Hillsman developed advertising strategy and messages for Wellstone's successful Senate campaign in 1990, and served as media consultant for his reelection campaign in 1996, which Wellstone won despite being the number one target for defeat by the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
In 1993, Hillsman took over a floundering Minneapolis mayoral campaign four weeks before election day, resulting in Sharon Sayles-Belton's election as the first African-American and the first woman mayor of Minneapolis, a city comprised of 85 percent white voters.
Hillsman's creative work has brought him a host of awards, including a Grand EFFIE for the Wellstone campaign. Both USA Today and Business Week named his Wellstone commercials the best political ads of 1990 and his Ventura commercials recently were honored with five POLLIE Awards from the American Association of Political Consultants.