Reiner wrote the cover letter for the firm's bid package, praising its work on his public and private endeavors. The letter, dated March 10, 2004, said the commission tapped GMMB to write First 5's "long-range Preschool Advocacy Plan" in 2003.
"Preschool for All is our top priority and we knew that nobody else had a better understanding of our goals and how to accomplish them," Reiner wrote.
Behr said the company's "knowledge of the issues" was partly why it won the contract. He added: "We certainly talked about [the firm's political campaign work] as one of the things that gave us the credentials."
In the interview, Reiner said both firms "have shown expertise and tremendous effectiveness."
"If I know somebody can do a job and do it well, it wouldn't be very smart of me not to go and see if I could get those people to do the job," Reiner said, adding that he hopes "people think we are hiring the best."
The panel that selected GMMB included three employees of the First 5 commission and a fourth member who works for the California Department of Health Services. The four reported being unimpressed that GMMB's bid enjoyed Reiner's backing. "The cover letter from Rob Reiner was considered inappropriate and showed bad judgment on the part of Mr. Reiner and GMMB," the panel wrote in an otherwise glowing assessment of the firm's bid.
The panel "chose not to be influenced either way" by Reiner's letter, said Colleen Stevens, the Department of Health Services official who served on the panel.
First 5 met its legal obligation by publicly inviting companies to bid on its ad contract. Only three did. It was surprising, some advertising executives said, given the contract's prestige and size: $67.5 million over three years.
Some ad executives said privately that they assumed the incumbent would win, and that the laborious bidding process would waste their time.
As part of its latest First 5 work, GMMB produced three TV commercials, including the one with the running teenager. A second ad featured a mound of clay morphing into a child and a schoolhouse, then into a business tableau, as a narrator intoned that when children go to preschool, they stay in school, "and our businesses end up with a better-educated workforce."
In a third commercial, a school principal lamented that too many children who don't attend preschool enter kindergarten unprepared, "get discouraged and drop out." Part of the commission's money was spent to air a fourth ad, made earlier and not focused on preschool.
