Sig Rogich
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Sigmund “Sig” Rogich is an Icelandic/American businessman and top media consultant to leading Republican candidates for office, under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He was the political campaign consultant for Jim Gibbons, who ran in the 2006 Nevada gubernatorial election.
Rogich is president of The Rogich Communications Group, a national and international business facilitator, public relations, and crisis management firm. He also founded Las Vegas based R&R Advertising, Nevada’s largest advertising and marketing firm, and has been closely involved with Las Vegas marketing for more than 30 years. His entertainment and business clients have included Frank Sinatra and Donald Trump.
Rogich, a divorced father of two daughters whose hobbies include camping, collecting duck stamps, playing the guitar and reading about Indians, concedes he can sound hokey. When he began working in the White House for the first President Bush in 1989, he said: "I know it sounds corny for someone to tell you that they're patriotic and that they feel honored to do something like this . . . but I believe deeply in this President because he's a good guy." (His title in 1989-92 was special assistant to the President for activities and initiatives.)
Born in Iceland, he started "dirt poor," as his mother, Ranny, told the New York Times in 1989, when the family lived in public housing and his father worked in a metals factory outside Las Vegas. His father went on to be a foreman at a company that made neon casino signs, and his sister was a dancer in a review that toured with Sammy Davis Jr. Sig Rogich worked odd jobs from the time he was small, and as he got older toiled as a busboy at casinos in Las Vegas, a bellboy in Lake Tahoe hotels and a folk singer in San Francisco bistros. He changed his name in college, from Sigfus to the less exotic Sigmund. By the time he turned 40, he was a multimillionaire, and one who quietly sends money to children in need of operations when he reads about them in newspapers.:[1]
"I look at everything from an historical point of view because I think that gives greater impact to the message," said Rogich, who collects first-edition books, papers and photographs involving his two heroes, Winston Churchill and Theodore Roosevelt. "It's important to look for the unusual setting that will be memorable. The Camp David accords wouldn't have been the same if they were the Washington accords."
Rogich is a longtime close associate and adviser to Paul Laxalt, United States Senator from Nevada and three times chairman of the presidential campaigns of Ronald Reagan. In 1984, Rogich was a key member of the "Tuesday Team," an advertising agency created specifically to produce campaign ads for the re-election campaign of President Reagan (a.k.a. Reagan-Bush '84). His title was National Advertising Director.
In 1987 and 1988 Rogich, working under chief media adviser Roger Ailes, personally directed the shooting of most of the television ads for the George H.W. Bush primary campaign (Bush for President) and general-election campaign (Bush-Quayle '88), as well as others for the Republican National Committee.
These included the famous "Revolving Door" spot for Bush-Quayle '88 (shot with prisoners at a Utah penitentiary), which highlighted the crime record of Democratic nominee, Gov. Michael Dukakis. Rogich is also credited with devising the Bush ads that prominently featured Michael Dukakis cruising in a tank at a General Dynamics plant in Michigan (though he did not shoot the footage personally).
Another Rogich spot, "I Remember You," aired by the RNC in July and August of 1988, used the 1940s song of the same name as background to a video collage of the Carter years, depicting oil sheiks, gas lines and malaise. Dukakis's lead over Bush -- 17 points at the end of the Democratic Convention in July -- evaporated by the end of the GOP Convention in August.
According to Rogich, he and Ailes got along famously. "We had a special relationship," Rogich recalled. "I liked the way Roger allowed me to be creative." Although he supervised the making of some of Mr. Bush's negative commercials, Rogich insisted he preferred the softer advertisements, like the one of Mr. Bush's granddaughter running into his arms.
In 1992, Rogich was named United States Ambassador to his native country of Iceland by President Bush. Within months, he voluntarily gave up his appointive post to assist in the latter months of Bush Sr.'s relection campaign (Bush-Quayle '92).
Rogich currently serves as National Finance Co-Chairman for The Republican Governors' Association and has served in the same capacity in Nevada for President George W. Bush. He was a Bush Pioneer, and an early supporter of John McCain in the 2008 presidential contest.
The Bush Pioneer website described the following:[2] {{cquote|Ex-heavyweight champ Mike Tyson also hired this former state boxing commissioner to burnish his image after biting Evander Holyfield’s ear in a match.
Rogich has a school named after him, Sig Rogich Middle School, which is located in Las Vegas, NV.
[edit] References
- ^ ["An Image Polisher Leaves Nevada Neon to Sharpen a 'Beige' White House," Maureen Dowd, New York Times, October 3, 1989]
- ^ Sig Rogich: Bush Pioneer
