Dixie Dodge?

I meant to point this out before, but clearly Mrs. Weinstein didn't raise any dummies.

The Weinstein Co., the one distributing the Chick flick, as in the Dixie Chicks documentary, has gotten a load of publicity without having to buy spots on NBC to promote the film.

Now, I have to admit that if the standards and practices notes the company got from NBC on the spots are accurate, NBC left itself open for criticism by suggesting the spots weren't appropriate because they criticized the preident.

I hope we get to still criticize the president and that doing so isn't particularly controversial.

But I also understand from people I trust that had Weinstein bought some time, then submitted the spots, the NBC ad department would have been on standards and practices in a New York minute to try to work something out to preserve the ad buy.

There is often a back and forth on spots that need some tinkering, but NBC isn't looking to kick any any bucks out the door. This smelled like a setup, and a pretty canny one at that.

As it was, without having to buy that time, Weinstein got to make a political controversy out of spots for a film about political controversy and get invaluable exposure on news pages and shows.

By John Eggerton