MANCHESTER, NH — Just when you thought this Election cycle could not take any more sharp turns comes a story that’s putting New Hampshire in the thick of things, for all the wrong reasons.
Several news outlets are buzzing [see below] about a story involving a questionable advertising fee paid by Donald Trump to a fantom Londonderry-based ad agency, Draper Sterling, a name taken right from the pages of a “Mad Men” script. The information was first reported by Think Progress, based on Trump’s Federal Election Commission filings.
In the middle of it all is a guy named Jon Adkins of Londonderry, who does not appear to be in advertising — not even a little bit — despite the $35,000 his Draper Sterling business received from Trump’s campaign in April, about a month after it was established, according to the NH Secretary of State’s business look-up page.
Just like the Don Draper character, Adkins has been a busy boy — Draper Sterling is just one of three businesses he launched in New Hampshire in the span of about three weeks in 2o16, including Grace’s Grantham Cafe and White Mountain Designs.
But that’s not all.
The Daily Mail seems to have dispatched an entire investigative team, uncovering photos of Adkins dressed as a “naughty chef, and all sorts of other juicy details,” including reports that Draper Sterling was also registered back in December as a Delaware business.
You can say what you want about The Daily Mail, but they aren’t the only ones reporting on this:
- Read the Think Progress story here.
- Read the Eagle Tribune story here.
- Read the Huffington Post story here.
- Read The Japan Times story here.
- Read the AdAge story here.
- Read the CNBC story here.
- Read the Vanity Fair story here.
- Read the CNN story here.
Just like watching a Mad Men marathon, it’s a lot to take in all at once. Some of it may be fact, some may be fiction, but all of it adds a layer of unwelcome drama to the 2016 Presidential race.
And not to be out headlined, this story breaks in the same news cycle as Trump’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, is also making headlines for the wrong reasons — a tell-all book by former White House Secret Service agent paints her in an unflattering light, as a violent, hot-tempered, unstable person who once allegedly gave her husband, the President, a black eye in a fit of rage. Perhaps because she found out about his alleged affair with Vice President Walter Mondale’s daughter, whom he was said to be carrying on with during the Monica Lewinsky years.
We’re just going to leave this all right here for you.
