A new poll released by Fabrizio, McLaughlin & Associates (their web page does not have the info, I received it by e-mail) looks at American opinion on several topics.
When asked the question, "In your opinion, which country is the United States' best or greatest ally in the Middle East," 33 percent said Israel. The next most popular answer was Saudi Arabia, but this was no great coup at 8 percent.
When respondents were asked about different countries, and whether their views of them were favorable or unfavorable, Saudi Arabia had 32 percent favorable and 49 percent unfavorable.
(For you Anglospherists, Great Britain was 86 percent favorable and only 4 percent unfavorable. Presumably those people are still sore about the War of 1812.)
"Now, since the terror attacks of September 11, has your opinion of Saudi Arabia gotten more favorable, less favorable or stayed about the same?" Saudi Arabia got a whopping negative 36 percent net favorability on this question (out-paced only by Iraq and Afghanistan).
"Recently the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been airing TV commercials in the U.S. I'd like to read you what some have said about airing these ads and ask which you agree with most?"
- 53 percent agreed with "Saudi Arabia is just trying to capitalize on the events of September 11th and promote their country to Americans during this difficult time."
- Only 21 percent credulously believed that "Saudi Arabia is being sincere and showing their support of Americans in this difficult time."
- 7 percent favored neither option
- 18 percent did not know or refused to answer
The final fun in this poll comes at the end, where respondents were asked, "If you knew each of the following were true, please tell me whether it would make you MORE favorable or LESS favorable to Saudi Arabia? If it wouldn't affect your opinion either way, just say so."
- 67 percent were made less favorable when told that "13 of the 19 terrorist hijackers from September 11th were from Saudi Arabia"
- 62 percent were made less favorable when informed that "Saudi Arabia has paid millions of dollars to the families of suicide bombers in the Middle East"
- And 55 percent were made less favorable when the pollsters mentioned that "Some news reports have suggested that Saudi Arabia is using American dependence on their oil supply as a way to change our country's policies in the Middle East."
"It's rare to see any group fail so dramatically like this. The Saudi campaign is well organized, well funded, and yet extremely wasteful. Clearly, Americans are not buying what they are selling. In fact, their advertizing is twice as likely to backfire than to help their cause," said Michael Cohen, VP for Public Affairs, upon the release of his firm's poll. He went on to make a bad joke about the Beatles' song "Can't Buy Me Love."
[the telephone poll hit 1200 random sample respondents over a 2 day period, with a margin of error of +/- 2.9 percent, and was conducted by Western Wats of Provo, UT]
You almost have to feel sad for them! The Saudis have spent at least $3.8 million on this campaign so far. Their ads were sickening, but to the uninformed I'm sure they looked almost appealing.
They've set aside about 10 milllion dollars overall for the campaign, but as far as I know, no national cable network has yet agreed to run the Saud Arabian ads.
Pardon my Nelson, but "Ha, Ha!"
UPDATE: From Slate's Diary (inside On the Media):
This Wednesday starts with one of those interviews, with the head of the PR firm that's been hired by the Saudi government to upgrade its American image. The interviewee has canceled on us three times. Now, he's on the phone from a hotel room in Bermuda, upbeat and eager and so full of spin that it's making me dizzy. He denies the networks have rejected his ads. (They have. We called them.) He denies he's trying to improve his client's image. (Why else are they paying him 4 million bucks?) He even denies that his client has an image problem. (With a 40 percent approval rating?)
2nd UPDATE: The Forward (May 31) highlights dissension within the Patton, Boggs lobbying firm, which has a piece of the Saudi PR action. Not only are they disturbed by the Saudi's ads, but also by some other anti-Israeli ones.
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