Palisades Enters Political-Ad Arena

Last year, a record $1 billion was spent on political advertising. That’s business many of the giant media shops don’t pursue, but Palisades Media Group sees opportunity in the segment.

To do so, the Santa Monica, Calif., independent, which claims $325 million in billings, last week added veteran political buyer Jean Brooks, formerly vp/COO at Carat USA, Los Angeles. For Brooks, who cut her teeth on a 1976 fundraiser for presidential candidate Jerry Brown, the goal is to leverage Palisades’ entertainment credentials (it handles Miramax, Fox Searchlight and others) to win political business.

“Movie studios want changes every other minute, so we’re used to working on that kind of advertising landscape, which is very similar to the political ad landscape,” said Palisades president and CEO Roger Schaffner, who worked with Brooks at Carat predecessor ICG before launching his shop in 1996.

Brooks, a native Angeleno, was a single mother working temp jobs...