Kings of Leon, Trump Museum, Booker’s Vote On Cheaper Meds – Friday’s Roundup

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Kings of Leon
The band Kings of Leon were in Atlantic City this week, which appears to have been a very-well-kept secret (until the careful PR campaign that announced it). They were there to rehearse an upcoming world tour, according to Atlantic City Weekly, but maybe it was some very smart thinking by Comcast’s venue management company Spectra, which operates Boardwalk Hall and Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center (coincidence! Kings of Leon play there next Thursday). In which case, hopefully Spectra is cottoning on finally to how to exploit its Philadelphia/AC synergies. There’s another issue here that kind of fascinates me: having a band like Kings of Leon come and ‘rehearse’ secretly-but-not-really is the kind of stealth marketing that Atlantic City really needs. It sells a pretty attractive message about the city (it’s attractive! To musicians!) to a key demographic (non-gamblers) that gets missed out of most of the AC marketing spiel. So hats off to whoever it was that pulled this off. And thanks Kings of Leon.

Trump Museum
The great Kevin C. Shelly of Philly Voice returns to AC to follow up on plans for a Trump museum, first mooted by Levi Fox, founder of Jersey Shore Tours, last year. Shelly writes that the Trump Museum Committee plans to launch an online fundraising campaign and the committee is also seeking artefacts and other mementos of Trump in AC. Read the piece for details here.

Booker’s Vote on Cheaper Meds
Changing tack just slightly, it’s worth considering this piece on a Senate vote from Wednesday night. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) voted with Republicans against a budget amendment that would have allowed Americans to purchase cheaper drugs from Canada. There were various strands to the for and against arguments for the amendment (safety and regulation was one issue, free(er) market pricing was another) and the vote didn’t go along party lines. An important footnote was this: “Booker has received more pharmaceutical manufacturing cash over the past six years than any other Democratic senator: $267,338. In addition, significant numbers of pharmaceutical and biotech firms reside in Booker’s home state of New Jersey.” To me (this is Elinor today), the piece was a (reasonably) simple watchdog article looking at how an elected representative is voting. It’s easier than ever to check and see how elected officials are voting and – with some important caveats – how they spend taxpayer money, but there are too few local news organizations left to do this routinely (please support us, by the way, if you don’t already!)

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