Two and a half years ago, Zac Byer was just a Penn undergraduate majoring in history. During the 2012 presidential campaign, he helped decide which political ads made it onto national television.
Approximately 25 people attended a lunchtime talk from the 2010 College graduate, hosted by the Fox Leadership Program. Byer talked about his work as a Communication Strategist and Advisor for the Penn alum-founded political communications firm, Luntz Global.
The event touched on everything from the most effective ads of the election to the benefits of law school for a career in politics.
Byer offered several reasons for President Obama’s victory in the election. Specifically, he believed that the Obama campaign was successful in labeling Gov. Mitt Romney early in the election as an “out-of-touch plutocrat” who would not be best for “an average person with an average job.”
Byer showed several ads that he considered effective, including “Stage,” which shows a laid-off paper plant worker describing how Mitt Romney’s firm, Bain Capital, purchased the plant, fired all of the employees and made $100 million in profit.
When an attendee asked him what he thought about negative ads, Byer said they were effective at winning elections. “People may say they aren’t impacted by negative ads, but if they weren’t, people wouldn’t be spending millions of dollars on them.”
“It was interesting to see another side of politics today, because you don’t usually get to see the men behind advertisements,” College freshman Varun Anand said.
Byer received a job offer in November 2011 from Luntz Global while in his third semester at Penn Law School. He took a leave of absence to work for the firm.
Luntz Global was founded by 1984 College graduate Frank Luntz. The company has popularized the use of instant-response focus groups, which monitor people’s reactions second-by-second as they watch videos such as advertisements.
While Byer was an undergraduate student at Penn, he was a member of the Sphinx Senior Society and received the Bowl Award, the second highest award given to a graduating senior.
While on campus, Byer was active in the Fox Leadership Program, the College Republicans and the Undergraduate Assembly.
Byer credits his education at Penn — both in and out of the classroom — for being where he is today. “If you get involved in the right things at Penn, you have to grow up pretty quickly.”
College freshman Aaron Michaels said the talk helped to expand his horizons. “It gives you a sense of perspective seeing all the different routes people take,” he said.
Byer will return to law school at the start of January. He said it will be a dramatic departure from his travel-filled 2012. “I’ve racked up 140,000 frequent flyer miles and I’ve been to Ohio more times than I ever want,” he joked at the end of his talk.
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